Skip to main content

Full text of "Men of progress: embracing biographical sketches of representative Michigan men:"

See other formats 


Men of Progress: 



EMBRACING 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



OF 



Representative Michigan Men 



AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE 



DEDICATED TO 
THE NEWSPAPER PRESS OF MICHIGAN 



DETROIT, MICH.: 
PUBLISHED BY THE EVENING NEWS ASSOCIATION 

1900 



Copyright, 1900, 

BY THE 

EVENING NEWS ASSOCIATION. 



Press of John F. Eby & Co.. 65-69 
Congress St. W., Detroit, Mich. 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 



MEN OF PROGRESS is a legitimate fruit of the law of evolution. Modern 
journalism takes note of events in the history of persons as well as of 
peoples. When any noteworthy event in the life of a person of prominence 
in the social or business world occurs, the newspaper press regards it as 
within the line of its duty to publish a brief sketch of the person, in many 
cases giving, also, an etching or miniature likeness. When a person pays 
the last debt of nature, these publications are a source of information to the 
public, as well as of a satisfaction to friends, and may, in many cases, be 
valuable as matter of record in cases involving the rights of living persons. 
The difficulty of procuring information of the character indicated, just at 
the time when it is wanted, suggested to those connected with publications of 
The Evening News Association the desirability of the preparation, arrange- 
ment and publication of sketches in the form embodied in this work. Pri- 
marily, therefore, the work is designed for the convenience of the newspaper 
press of the State, and hence is, as first stated, a legitimate fruit of the law 
of evolution. 

Only a limited number of copies of the work are published. Aside from 
copies supplied to those directly represented in the work, copies will be 
placed in the leading libraries and leading newspaper offices of the State, 
and here its circulation will end. 

The Evening News Association. 



INDEX TO HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



THE CIVIL COMMONWEALTH. 

POSITION AND EARLY HISTORY. 

Geography and Topography— First European Visitations— A French Dependency— Early Explora- 
tions — Roman Catholic Missions — First Permanent Settlement — Territorial Sovereignty — 
Part of the State of Virginia— Claims of Massachusetts and Connecticut — General George 
Rogers Clarke — The Western Reserve — Civil Jurisdiction of the United States 1-3 

TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 
The Ordinance of 1787 — The Governor and Judges — A Landed Qualification — A Legislative Coun- 
cil Provided for — The Territory to Be Formed Into States— First Seat of Government — The 
Five States of the Northwest — Michigan as a Separate Territory— Large Grants of Land to 
Revolutionary Heroes — Comparative Influence of Cities — The Landed Qualification Abrogated 3-4 

ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT. 
The Right to Statehood — Adoption of the Constitution and Election of State Officers— Meeting 
of the Legislature — Election of United States Senators — The Disputed Boundary — Objections 
to the Admission of the State — Judge Campbell's View of the Case, and Other Authorities — 
Terms Proposed by Congress — Military Demonstrations — A New Territorial Governor Ap- 
pointed — The Slavery Question a Factor — Two Conventions of Assent — Final Admission of 
the State — Calendar of Events Leading Up to Statehood — Seat of Government and State 
Capitol 5-8 

CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY HISTORY. 
First Constitution and Statutes Similar to Those of New York — Method of Choosing State 
Officers and Judges — Time of Elections — Process of Amendment — Senators and Representa- 
tives, How Chosen — Salaries — Constitution of 1850 — Legislative in Its Character — Variances 
from the First Constitution — The More Important Amendments — Constitutional Convention 
of 1867 and Constitutional Commission of 1873— The Work of Both Rejected by the People- 
Subsequent Votes on the Question of Ordering a General Convention — Legislative Authority 
Under the Territory — Compilations of the Statutes in 1822 and 1833 — Revised Statutes of 
1838 and 1846— Compilations of 1857 and 1871— The Howell Compilation— The Miller Com- 
pilation — Reprint of Territorial Laws 8-12 

THE JUDICIARY. 
Judges and Courts Under the Territorial Government and Under the First Constitution — Asso- 
ciate Judges in the Counties — Increase in the Number of Circuits — County Courts — The 
Supreme Court — When Provided for and Organized — Provision for a Fifth Judge — Circuit 
Court Commissioners and Masters in Chancery 12-13 



THE MILITARY RECORD. 

COLONIAL AND INDIAN WARS. 
First Conflict on Michigan Soil — One Thousand Indians Slain — Decisive Campaigns Elsewhere — 

Conspiracy of Pontiac — Battle of Bloody Bridge — Massacre at Mackinac 14-15 

THE WAR OF 1812. 
Indian Discontent — Tecumseh and His Brother, "The Prophet" — The Hull Surrender — Massacre 
at the River Raisin — Perry's Victory on Lake Erie — Battle of the Thames and Death of 
Tecumseh — British Occupancy of Detroit — A British Provisional Government — Joint Procla- 
mation by General Harrison and Commodore Perry — Capture of Mackinac Island by the British 15-17 



viii INDEX TO HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 

THE SHADOW OP TWO WARS. 
The Toledo War— A Bloodless Campaign— The Patriot War— Canadian Refugees in Detroit- 
Local Sentiment in Sympathy With Them — Efforts of State and Government Officials to 
Maintain Neutrality — Invasion of Canada at Windsor — Its Disastrous Failure — Participants 
Hanged and Transported — John H. Harmon — Dr. E. A. Theller 17-18 

THE WAR WITH MEXICO. 
Causes Leading to the War — The Annexation of Texas — Michigan Troops in the War — General 

Taylor — General Scott — Alleged Political Scheming 18-19 

THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 
First Steps Taken in Michigan — First Troops Raised — Succesive Calls for Troops — Ready Re- 
sponse on the Part of the State — Enlistments, Drafts and Commutations — Whole Number of 
Troops Sent to the Front From Michigan — Table of Enlistments by Counties — Bounty Jump- 
ers — "We are Coming, Father Abraham" — Southern Refugees in Canada — C. L. Vallandig- 
ham — Capture of the Philo Parsons — Bennet G. Burley — "Michigan in the War" — A Brief 
Summary — Tabular Exhibit of Michigan Regiments in the War — The Artillery Service — Col. 
C. 0. Loomis — Grand Army of the Republic 19-25 

THE WAR WITH SPAIN. 
War Loan Authorized — Mobilization of the National Guard — Regiments Mustered In — Summary 

of Their Service — Gen. Henry M. Duffield — Col. Cornelius Gardener — The Naval Reserves 25-26 

THE STATE MILITARY. 
Early Laws on the Subject — General Trainings — Derivation of the Custom — Fell Into Disfavor — 
Independent Volunteer Companies — Absence of Military Spirit — A Marked Revival Preceding 
the Civil War — A Demand for Legislation Favorable to the Military — Revision of the Militia 
Laws — The State Troops — Re-organization After the War — Encampment — Home Service of 
the State Troops — Michigan National Guard — The Naval Militia — General John E. Schwarz 
and General John Robertson 26-29 



EDUCATIONAL. 



EARLY AND CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES. 
The Ordinance of 1787 — Land Grants by Congress — Provisions of the State Constitution — First 

Superintendent of Public Instruction — A Comprehensive System Outlined 30-31 

THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 
Act of Congress, 1804 — Judge Woodward's Pedantic Scheme — Second Act of Establishment, 1821 — 

Branches — Local Academies — The Branches Abandoned 31-32 

THE UNIVERSITY UNDER STATE CONTROL. 
Organic Act of 1837 — Located at Ann Arbor — Proposed Separate Departments for Females — State 
Loan for Building Purposes — First Opened in 1842 — Th^ First Professorships — Financial 
Embarrassment — Elements of Hostility — First Graduating Class — Dismissal of Members of 
the Faculty— Prof essor Ten Brook's Work 32-34 

THE UNIVERSITY UNDER THE NEW REGIME. 
First Elective Board of Regents — President Tappan — A Feeling of Unfriendliness Toward Him — 
Tempest Over the Term "Chancellor" — Other Carping Allegations — Fruits of Dr. Tappan's 
Work — The Astronomical Observatory — The Law Department — Remission of the University 
Loan — Dr. Angell's Tribute — Removal of Dr. Tappan — President E. O. Haven — Acting Presi- 
dent Henry S. Frieze 34-36 

THE UNIVERSITY UNDER PRESIDENT ANGELL. 
Appointment of Dr. Angell — His Diplomatic Service — Acting President Hutchins — Incidents in 
the History of the University — Admission bf Women — Introduction of New Schools and Ex- 
tension of Courses — The Semi-Centennial and the Quarter Centennial of President Angell's 
Administration — A Comparative Summary — A Metrical Prophecy — Homeopathic Medical 
College — Annual Revenues — List of Acts Relating to the University 36-38 



INDEX TO HISTORICAL SKETCHES. ix 

OTHER STATE COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS. 

The Agricultural College— The Normal Schools— College of Mines— Schools for Deaf Mutes and 

the Blind — Educational and Reformatory Institutions 39-40 

THE PRIMARY AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 
Views of the First Superintendent— Views of Governor Mason— Development of the High School 
— Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor— Teaching of Foreign and Classical Languages in the Schools- 
Changes in the School Laws— Comparative School Statistics— Former Superintendents 41-43 

THE TRUST FUNDS. 
Origin of the Trust Funds— First Loaned to Private and Local Interests— Absorbed Into the State 

Treasury— Constitutional Provision— Tabular Exhibits— Are the Trust Funds a Debt? 43-45 

RELIGIOUS TEACHING IN STATE SCHOOLS. 
Early Sentiment on the Subject — The Historical Ordinance — Condition of an Early Land Pur- 
chase—As Related to the Primary Schools— As Related to the University— Views of Presi- 
dent Angell, Professor Frieze and President Tappan— The Select Bible Readings 45-49 



MATERIAL INTERESTS. 

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS BY THE STATE. 
Fanciful Schemes of the Earlier Days — Prophetic of What Is Now Seen — Work Projected — The 
Five Million Loan — Views of Governor Barry — Sale of the Railroads — Abandonment of the 
System 49-50 

BANKING AND CURRENCY. 
First Effort at Banking — Chartered Banks — General Banking Law of 1837, or "Wild Cat" Banks 
— Collapse of the System — Scarcity of Bank Currency — Canadian, Indiana and Illinois Notes 
— General Banking Law of 1857 — State Banks of Issue Superseded by National Currency — 
Shinplasters and State Scrip — Savings Banks, State Banks and National Banks — Tabular 
Exhibits 50-52 

RAILROADS. 
First Railway in New York — Western New York Immigrants and Nomenclature — First Railway 
Charter in Michigan — "Success to the Railroad" — The Trunk Lines — Sale of the Roads by 
the State — Wonderful Development of the Railway System — Methods in Early Construction 
— Land Grants in Aid of Railways — Local Aid to Railways — Railway Statistics 52-56 

GOVERNMENT LAND GRANTS. 
The University Lands — Primary School Lands — Agricultural College Lands — Salt Spring Lands — 

Sault Ste. Marie Canal Lands — Swamp Lands — Railway Land Grants 57-60 

MINERAL RESOURCES. 
Early Discovery of Copper — Later Explorations — Discovery of Iron Ore — Geological Survey — Dr. 
Douglass Houghton— Work on the Survey by Others — Copper and Copper Mining — Statistics 
of Copper Production — Ancient Mine Work — Iron and Iron Mining — Iron Ore Shipments — 
Saline Interests — Gold and Silver — Other Mineral Products 60-65 



RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 

ROMAN CATHOLIC. 
St. Anne's Church and Father Del Halle — Father Gabriel Richard — Diocesian Data — Statistics of 

Church in Michigan 66-67 



X INDEX TO HISTOHICAL SKETCHES. 

PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS. 
Rev. David Bacon — Early Methodist Missions — Dr. Nathan Bangs — Ministration of Father Rich- 
ard — First Protestant Societies — A Couple of Anecdotes / 67-69 

CHURCH DOCTRINE AND POLITY. 
Methodist Episcopal — Baptist — Congregational — Presbyterian — Protestant Episcopal — Church 

Statistics " 69-71 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

POLITICAL PARTIES. 

Derivation of Party Names — Early State Politics — Governor Mason — Woodbridge and Reform — 
Succeeding Democratic Rule — Governor Barry — Anti-Slavery Parties — The Van Buren Candi- 
dacy of 1848 — Disastrous Whig Defeat in 1852 — The Know-Nothings — Ex-President Fillmore 
— Bell and Everett — Formation of the Republican Party — Mergence of the Whig Organization 
— The "Silver Greys" — Anti-Chandler Campaign in 1862 — The Prohibitionists — The Greeley 
Campaign of 1872— Ex-Governor Blair— The Liquor Traffic in the Campaign of 1874— The 
Greenback and other Third Parties — Democratic-People's-Union-Silver Combination — Politi- 
cal Fusions Not a Success 72-77 

THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 
Historical Reference — Local Option Laws — Prohibition Laws — Non-license Clause of the Consti- 
tution of 1850— The Taxation Law of 1875— Rate of the Tax Under Different Acts 77-79 

TABULAR EXHIBITS. 
State Institutions — Population — Equalized Valuation — State Taxes — Comparative Farm Statistics 

— Farm Products at Different Periods ; 79-80 



INDEX TO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Page. 

Ainsworth, Corydon E 269 

Aitken, David D 214 

Allen, Charles T 393 

Allen, Ethel M 312 

Alvord, Austin W 338 

Alward, Dennis E 351 

Anker, Samuel 340 

Aplin, Henry H 459 

Austin, Charles 308 

Austin, Edward 347 

Avery, Aaron B 105 

Baart, Peter A 431 

Baird, Robert B 109 

Bacon, Augustus E 137 

Baldwin, Augustus 'C 110 

Baldwin, Prank D 456 

Ball, Daniel H 378 

Ball, William 350 

Bandholtz, Harry H 446 

Barber, Julius S 356 

Barre, Corvis M 196 

Bawden, Frederic J 303 

Baxter, Charles E , 517 

Beamer, Wm. H 519 

Beck, George 524 

Beekman, Wm. M 156 

Begole, Charles M 305 

Begole, Fred. H 162 

Belknap, Charles E 286 

Bell, George M 355 

Bellaire, John 1 160 

Bement, Arthur 126 

Bement, George W 228 

Bennett, Albert D 97 

Bennett, Ebenezer 335 

Bible, John F 189 

Bird, Arthur C 149 

Birkett, Thomas 426 

Bishop, Roswell P 462 

Blacker, Robert R 477 

Blakeslee, Edwin A 115 

Bliss, Aaron T 503 

Bonine, Fred. M 497 

Boudeman, Dallas 443 

Boutell, Benj 527 

Boynton, Charles L 98 

Boynton, Nathan S 108 

Braastad, Frederick 326 

Breitung, Edward N 165 

Brewer, Mark S 376 

Brewster, Charles E 138 

Briggs, Charles 230 

Brown, Addison M 243 



Page. 

Brown, Blbridge G 232 

Brown, Michael 461 

Buck, Homer E 463 

Buckley, Edward 457 

Buhl, Theo. DeL 516 

Burrows, Julius C 383 

Burt, Wellington R 362 

Burtless, Wm. E 319 

Bush, Matthew 192 

Bush, Sumner 452 

Bush, Willard K 84 

Cahill, Edward 85 

Callaghan, Miles M 445 

Campbell, Andrew 145 

Campbell, Henry D 434 

Campbell, Milo D 125 

Canfield, Charles J 466 

Carey, Henry W 440 

Carhartt, Hamilton 526 

Carlson, Conrad 213 

Carroll, Thomas F 261 

Cartier, Antoine E 430 

Carton, John J 257 

Case, Claude W 260 

Case, Fred. H 114 

Caswell, Jabez B 140 

Chaddock, John B 211 

Chamberlain, Geo. L 481 

Chamberlain, Henry 322 

Chamberlain, Wm 405 

Chandler, William 407 

Chase, Charles H . . . . 455 

Chase, Henry E 122 

Christian, Thomas H - 320 

Churchill, Worthy L 367 

Clarage, Charles 229 

Clark, Frederick 352 

Clarke, Francis D 200 

Clarke, Wm. R 87 

Cole, Thomas F 262 

Colgrove, Philip T 295 

Colman, Hutson B 318 

Connine, Main J 153 

Corliss, John B 249 

Corns, Henry C 523 

Coutant, Arthur S 255 

Covell, George G 244 

Coye, James A 280 

Cox, James N 90 

Cox, Joseph L 134 

Crawford, Hugh A 297 

Crosby, Will A 504 

Crouter, George W 473 



Xll 



INDEX TO BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Page. 

Croze, Joseph 231 

Crump, Rousseau 304 

Cruse, Alfred 346 

Cuddihy, John D 333 

Curry, Solomon S 359 

Curtis, Miles S 191 

Cutler, Fred., Jr 349 

Daley, William J 334 

Danaher, Cornelius D 263 

Danaher, Michael B 471 

Darragh, Archibald B 500 

Davis, George B 123 

Davison, Me thew 302 

Dee, James R 175 

Dempsey, James 429 

Diekema, Gerrit J 366 

Dingley, Edward N 216 

Dodds, Francis H 309 

Dodds, Peter F 387 

Dodge, Frank L 323 

Doherty, Alfred J 404 

Donovan, John 403 

Dougherty, Andrew B 507 

Doyle, James B 300 

Duff, William J 400 

Duncan, Murray M 251 

Durand, George H 289 

Durant, William C 525 

Earle, Horatio S 398 

Edwards, Wm. M 186 

Eis, Frederick 371 

Ellis, Adolphus A 218 

Eslow, James C 394 

Eveleth, Erwin 204 

Everard, Herbert H 395 

Fedewa, John H 194 

Ferry, Dexter M 520 

Fifield, Henry 207 

Filer, E. Golden. 475 

Fisher, Spencer 377 

Fisher, Walter J 271 

Fiske, Lewis R 258 

Fitz Gerald, John C 389 

Fitzgerald, John W 272 

Flood, James K 474 

Flowers, Charles 518 

Forsyth, Alexander 490 

Forsyth, Richard S 96 

Forsy the, Lee K 451 

Freeman, George W 166 

Frost, George E 139 

Fuller, Otis 183 

Caige, Joseph M 288 

Gale, Charles W 254 

Gardener, Cornelius 155 

Garfield, Charles W 235 



Page. 

Gerow, Arthur M 154 

Giddings, J. Wight 388 

Gilkey, Patrick H 375 

Glasgow, Silas W 450 

Glavin, John M 399 

Godfrey, Marshal H 491 

Godsmark, Alfred J 188 

Graham, Robert D 143 

Graham, Rodney S 273 

Grant, Claudius B 124 

Green, Edward H 4io 

Griswold, Norris 234 

Grove, Wm. E 86 

Grosvenor, Elliot 120 

Grosvenor, E. 241 

H ackley, Charles H 437 

Hall, Albert J 343 

Hall, De Vere 195 

Hambitzer, Joseph F 159 

Hanchette, Charles D 176 

Handy, Sherman T 345 

Hannah^ Perry 425 

Hanson, Rasmus 433 

Harison, Beverly D 397 

Harris, Samuel B 253 

Hart, George A 422 

Hart, Rodney G 275 

Hartz, John C 514 

Harvey, Harrie T 433 

Hatch, Reuben 353 

Hawkins, Victor 279 

Hazeltine, Chas. S 268 

Hebard, Charles lei 

Heck, George R 209 

Hemans, Lawton T 402 

Hill, George R 157 

Hill, .Joshua 129 

Hills, Charles T 432 

Hinman, Edward C 187 

Holbrook, John 150 

Holmes, William 264 

Hooker, Frank A 135 

Hopkins, Mark 330 

Hosking, Wm. H 93 

Hotchkiss, Edgar H 180 

Hovey, Horatio N 496 

Howard, William G 236 

Hoyt, Hiram J 465 

Hubbell, Jay A 354 

Hume, Thomas 436 

Hummer, George P 476 

Humphrey, Chas. M 203 

J anes, Oscar A 506 

Jewell, Harry D 298 

Jochim, John W 163 

Joslyn, Charles D 492 

Joslyn, Lee E 512 

Judd, George E 237 



INDEX TO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Xlll 



Page. 

Kaufman, Nathan M 468 

Keliher, Peter C 324 

Kidwell, Edgar 172 

Kollen, Gerrit J 480 

Knappen, Loyal E 374 

Lane, M. Henry 484 

Lang, Archibald B 270 

Langell, John D 158 

Langlois, Theo. J 266 

Larke, Fredk. D 413 

Latta, Frank H 348 

Lawton, Charles DeW 327 

Lee, Fred. E 281 

Leisen, Jacob 325 

Lillie, Walter 1 418 

Little, Andrew J 511 

Lockerby, Wm. H 339 

Loennecker, Martin G 282 

Long, Charles D 116 

Long, James W 384 

Long, Oscar R 285 

Longyear, John M 168 

Loomis, Arthur P I44 

Loranger, Ubald R 414 

Lothrop, Henry B 515 

Loud, George A 167 

Loud, Henry M 307 

Luce, Cyrus G 284 

Lyon, Frank A 259 

McCall, Lyman H 424 

McClintock, Gilman J 222 

McCurdy, Hugh 239 

McDonell, Archibald 433 

McKnight, Wm. F 406 

McLaughlin, James C 495 

McMillan, James 391 

MacNaughton, James 316 

Mackenzie, Fred'k 321 

Magee, Michael J 148 

Main, John T 357 

Maltz, George L 132 

Mann, Alexander V 449 

Marr, Charles H ■ 104 

Marshall, Joseph 416 

Marvin, Henry M 486 

Mason, Richard 379 

Merriman, George W 441 

Michelson, Nels 409 

Mills, Alfred J 88 

Miner, John 489 

Mitchell, Samuel 341 

Mitchell, Wm. H. C 470 

Montgomery, Robert M 117 

Moore, Franklin 118 

Moore, George Wm. (Detroit) 528 

Moore, George Wm. (Port Huron) 113 

Moore, Joseph B 119 

Morgans, Wm. H 385 

Morrill, Roland 373 



Page. 

Morris, Edmund C 408 

Morse, Allen B 227 

Morse, Grant M 142 

Mul vey, John 174 

Munroe, Thomas 454 

Murphy, Alfred J 522 

Musselman, Amos S 386 

Newkirk, Charles T 439 

Nims, Frederick A 498 

Newnham, Richard L 177 

Newton, William 292 

Nichols, Alva W 372 

Norris, Mark 226 

North, George S 171 

Noud, Patrick 448 

Oakman, Robert 510 

O'Brien, Michael 121 

O'Brien, Thomas J 247 

Olds, Ransom E 94 

Oren, Horace M 147 

Orr, Brakie J 460 

Orr, George H 233 

Orr, George W 197 

Osborn, Chase S 131 

Osborn, James W 415 

P'adgham, Philip 250 

Palmer, Ambrose B 419 

Parker, G. Whitbeck 329 

Parsons, James M. 91 

Pealer, Russel R 208 

Peavey, Frank A 442 

Pelton, David C 141 

Penberthy, Frank 181 

Perry, George R 185 

Person, Rollin H 224 

Peterman, John P 276 

Peters, Richard G 464 

Pettyjohn, Elmore S 3O6 

Phelan, James 513 

Pierce, Charles S 151 

Pingree, Hazen S 225 

Potter, William W 130 

Preston, Wm. P 360 

Prince, William 1 199 

Pringle, Eugene 315 

Quick, Martin H 252 

Quirk, Daniel L lOl 

R amsdell, Jonathan G 427 

Rankin, Francis H 296 

Rathbone, Alfred D 248 

Ranney, Frederick E 287 

Reed, George 447 

Reid, Edwy C 311 

Robinson, Orrin W 99 

Rogers, J. Sumner gg 

Roos, Elbert S 417 



INDEX TO BIOGEAPHIGAL SKETCHES. 



Page. 

Rose, Henry M 364 

Rowley, Louis E 502 

Ruppe, Peter 182 

Russell, James 380 

Ryan, Edward 193 

St. John, J. Edgar 136 

Sailing, Ernest N 412 

Salsbury, Lant K 223 

Savidge, William 411 

Saviers, Lemuel 501 

Sawyer, Eugene T 458 

Sawyer, Walter H 198 

Sayre, Ira T 127 

Scallon, Joseph E 337 

Scott, Archibald J 392 

Scott, Robert D 100 

Scully, James 92 

Seager, James H 220 

Searl. Kelly S 469 

Shank, Rush J 267 

Sharpe, Nelson 421 

Shearer, G. Henry 444 

Shelden, Carlos D 277 

Shepherd, Prank 146 

Shields, Robert H 382 

Sibbald, John A 314 

Simonson, Albert B 344 

Sligh, Charles R 274 

Smith, Clement M 278 

Smith, John M. C 396 

Smith, Robert 488 

Smith, Samuel W 112 

Smith, Thomas R Ill 

Smith, Wm. Alden 363 

Soper, Daniel E 482 

Soper, Julius M 20.5 

Spaulding, Oliver L 301 

Spies, August 478 

Stanton, Frank McM 265 

Starr, John V 212 

Stearns, Justus S 133 

Stephenson, And. C 238 

Stevens, Herman W 107 

Stevens, Mark W 472 

Stevenson, Elliott G 521 

Stewart, Frank M 256 

Stewart, G. Duff 509 

Stewart, Hugh P 493 

Stewart, Nathaniel H 178 

Stewart, Wm. F 240 

Stone, George W 152 

Stone, John W 170 

Stuart, Wm. J 190 

Sundstrom, Chas. P 169 

Sutherland, Wm 390 

Terriff, William W 328 

Thielman, Wm. H 342 



Page. 

Thomas, Charles E 336 

Thompson, James R 201 

Thompson, Wm. B 299 

Townsend, Emory. 420 

Trueman, George A 164 

Tupper, Horace 428 

Tyrrell, John E 219 

Van Kleeck, James 485 

Van Orden, Mathew C 95 

Van Riper, Jacob J 401 

Van Zile, Philip T 494 

Vaughan, Coleman C 291 

Vivian, Johnson 173 

W ade, Charles F 435 

Wagar, Edgar S 128 

Wager, H. R X84 

Wait, Frank W 423 

Warner, Fred. M 283 

Warren, Henry M 245 

Watson, Thomas 106 

Wayne, Duncan A 217 

Weadock, George W 36S 

Weadock, John C 369 

Weadock, Thos. A. E 508 

Webb, Robert B 3^ 

Webster, William 290 

Weeks, Edgar 102 

Weier, August J 210 

Wells, Franklin 294 

Wesselius, Sybrant 36I 

Weter, James E 215 

Whaley , Robert J 221 

W^heeler, A. Oren 242 

White, William H 479 

Whiting, Justin R 332 

Whiting, Stephen B 202 

Willard, George 246 

Williams. Fitch R 457 

Williams, Gershom M 313 

Willits, Warren J 206 

Wilson, Charles L 370 

Wilson, Mathew 505 

Wilson, Wm. D 103 

Winans, George G 317 

Winsor, Lou B 381 

Wolcott, Frank T 453 

Wood, Edwin 293 

Wood, Lucien E 499 

Woodworth, Fred. D 331 

Wright, Ammi W 89 

Wright, Cass T 179 

Wright, Hamilton M 365 

Yaple, George L. 310 

Youngquist, Otis B 467 



Men of Progress 



Historical Sketches 



By S. B. McCracken. 



THE CIVIL COMMONWEALTH. 



POSITION AND EARLY HISTORY 



Geography and Topography— First European Visi- 
tations—A French Dependency— Early Explora- 
tions—Roman Catholic Missions— First Perma- 
nent Settlement— Territorial Sovereignty— Part of 
the State of Virginia— Claims of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut— General George Rogers Clarke 
—The Western Reserve— Civil Jurisdiction of the 
United States. 

The State of Micbigan occupies a position 
approximating the center of the North Ameri- 
can continent, and is embraced between the 
parallels 41° 45^ and 48° 20^ north latitude, 
and the meridians of 82° 25' and 90° 34' of 
longitude west from Greenwich. The center 
of the State is marked by the position of 
Garp Lake, in Leelanaw County, which is 670 
miles in a straight line from the city of 'New 
York. The land area of the State consists of 
two natural divisions, known as the Upper 
and Lower Peninsulas, and adjacent islands. 
The Upper Peninsula has its greatest extent 
from east to west, and the Lower it« greatest 
extent from north to south. The following 
exhibits the length and breadth in miles, and 
the number of square miles, and number of 
acres, in each peninsula: 



Divisions. 


Length. 


Breadth. 


Sq. Miles. 


Acres. 


Upper 


318.104 
277.009 


164.386 
259.056 


22.580 
33,871 


14,451.456 
21,677,184 


Lower 





The total length of the lake-shore line is 
1,620 miles, embracing, or enclosing the en- 
tire Lower Peninsula with the exception of 
less than 200 miles on its southern boundary, 
and the entire of the Upper Peninsula except 
its western boundary. To this should be 
added the numerous bays and rivers available 
for floatage and navigation, connecting with 
the larger waters. The State also has within 
its bounds, but unconnected with the great 



lakes, over 5,000 smaller lakes, having all 
area of 712,864 acres. 

The liistory of Michigan is essentially 
modern. As compared with many countries 
having a written history, it is as but of yester- 
day. The earliest European visitations are 
placed at about the middle of the seventeenth 
century, up to which time its only inhabitants 
were the aborigines, of Avhich the Chippewas 
or Ojibuays, the Hurons or Wyandots, and 
the Ottawas, were among the principal tribes. 
The territory now comprising the State of 
Michigan was a French dependency, forming 
a part of what was originally known as New 
France, the seat of government of which was 
at Quebec. Li 1669 or 1670 explorations 
were undertaken under authority of the 
French viceroy or intendant, with which the 
names of De St. Lusson and La Salle are con- 
nected. These explorations were chiefly con- 
fined to the great waterways, extending as 
far as Lake Superior, and from thence by 
La Salle down the Mississippi Kiver. To aid 
in his work, La Salle, in 1679, built a small 
vessel of sixty tons burthen, which he named 
the Griffin, with wdiicli he made the tour of 
the upper lakes, the first vessel, more preten- 
tious than the Indian canoe, that ever sailed 
those waters. The oflRcial explorations were 
preceded by some years by the Jesuit mission- 
aries, who were also contemporaneous with 
them. Among the names prominently ap- 
pearing in this connection are those of Mes- 
nard, Allouez, Hennepin, and Marquette. 
There are intimations, not fully verified, of 
visits by the French navigator, Champlain, to 
the lake region, as early as 1612. 

The first permanent settlement of Euro- 
peans in Michigan, having the elements of 
civil life and municipal regulation, was that 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 



by Cadillac, at Detroit, in 1701. The French 
sovereigntj was terminated by the surrender 
of Detroit to the British in November, 1760, 
as the result of the triumph of the British 
arms over the French in the war that had 
been waged for some years between the two 
nations, for supremacy in, the western hemis- 
phere. The British occupation continued 
until July 11, 1796, when the British gar- 
rison retired from Detroit and the flag of the 
Union was raised over Fort Shelby. Detroit 
was at that time the gateway to the northwest 
territory, and by its occupancy the sover- 
eignty of the United States was established 
over the entire territory between the great 
lakes on the north and the Ohio Eiver on the 
south. Although this territory was conceded 
to the United States by the peace of 1783, 
which terminated the war of the revolution, 
the occupancy of Detroit and Mackinac Island 
was continued by the British under various 
pretexts. 

Under the French and British rule the 
Northwest Territory was politically associated 
with the Canadas, but became a part of the 
territory of Virginia upon its occupancy by 
the United States. Both Connecticut and 
Massachusetts, however, asserted a color of 
title to portions of the territory now embraced 
in the State of Michigan. Connecticut 
claimed from the 41st parallel of latitude to 
42° ^\ and Massachusetts from the last 
named line to the 45th parallel. These claims 
were based upon their original charters, which 
defined their northern and southern bound- 
aries as above given, running from the sea- 
board west, and presumptively as far west as 
the possessions of the English crown, from 
which their charters were derived, extended. 
Without discussing the subject, it would seem 
that these claims were more fanciful than 
real. But for the action of a Virginian, Gen. 
George Eogers Clarke, the entire Northwest 
Territory would have been lost to the United 
States, and the national boundary line would 
have been fixed at the Ohio Eiver instead of 
the great lakes. Gen. Clarke was commis- 
sioned by the State of Virginia to undertake 



a campaign against the British posts in the 
northwest, and was granted a small appro- 
priation for the purpose. His success secured 
the Northwest Territory to the United States 
in the peace settlement, which thereby be- 
came a part of the State of Virginia. This 
was the opinion held by the late Judge 
Charles I. Walker, of Detroit, who was con- 
sulted by the writer on the subject. Judge 
Walker had made the subject of northwest- 
em history a study, and no one was better 
qualified than he to give an opinion with 
judicial fairness. However, in the cession of 
the Northwest Territory to the United States, 
the three States of Virginia, Connecticut and 
Massachusetts were severally parties. The 
land embraced in what is known as the West- 
ern Eeserve, in Ohio, was conceded to Con- 
necticut in consideration of the release of her 
claimed sovereignty. That is, she "reserved" 
so much land, reserving title to it, while re- 
linquishing her claim of political sovereignty 
over the boundaries above described. 

A brief reference to the history of the gen- 
eral government in its relation to territorial 
possession seems appropriate in this imme- 
diate connection, especially in view of the 
recently acquired foreign possessions. The 
constitution of the United States was adopted 
in convention in 1787, and the government 
went into efi^ect under it, through its ratifica- 
tion by the requisite number of States, in 
1789. Up to that time the general govern- 
ment was simply a confederation of sovereign 
states, with very limited powers, and cum- 
brous in its mechanism. It had, strictly 
speaking, no territorial jurisdiction. It did 
not, and could not, exercise sovereignty over 
a foot of land that was not included in some 
one of the States. Territories, as bodies 
politic, were unknown. But by the cession of 
the Northwest Territory, above referred to, 
a territorial condition was created, and for the 
purjx)se of government the ordinance of 17-87 
was adopted on July 13 of that year. This 
ordinance was framed in conformity to the 
acts of cession, and provided for the ultimate 
division or organization of the territory into 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



3 



not less than three nor more than five States, 
of which the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
nois, Michigan and Wisconsin are the pro- 
duct. This assnniption of territorial soA^er- 
eignty by the congress of the confederation 
was special, and under clearly defined terms, 
and its exercise was expected to terminate 
with the erection of the territory into States. 
The constitution adopted in September of 
the same year had in view the ceded 
territory when it provided that ^^The Con- 
gress shall have power to dispose of, and make 
all needful rules and regulations respecting 
the territory or other property belonging to 
the United States." The use of the words ^^ter- 
ritory or other property'' leaves the clear in- 
ference that the word ^^territory" had refer- 
ence only to so much of the soil as might be 
the "property" of the United States, and not 
to the exercise of political sovereignty over 
limitless areas of the earth's surface. This 



view of the matter is strengthened by clause 
16, section 8, of the first article of the consti- 
tution, which gives to Congress exclusive jur- 
isdiction over such site as might be ceded by 
any of the States not exceeding ten miles 
square (now the District of Columbia), as the 
seat of the general government, and over such 
sites as might be acquired with the consent of 
the States in which located, for government 
uses. By this specific grant of power the 
inhibition of similar power outside of it must 
be preserved. But the right of the govern- 
ment to acquire and exercise jurisdiction over 
outlaying territory has passed beyond dis- 
cussion. If not conferred by the constitu- 
tion, it is a right acquired by use and acquies- 
cence, if it be not a right forcing itself upon 
a growing nation as a necessity. The subject 
has been so far treated, however, only for the 
purpose of showing how radical a departure 
from early traditions has taken place. 



TEKRITOEIAL GOVERIS^MElSrT. 



The Ordinance of 1787— The Governor and Judges— 
A Landed Qualification— A Legislative Council 
Provided for— The Territory to Be Formed Into 
States— First Seat of Government— Tlie Five 
States of the Northwest— Michigan as a Separate 
Territory — ^Large Grants of Land to Revolution- 
ary Heroes — Compai^ative Influence of Cities — 
The Landed Qualification Abrogated. 

The Congress of the Confederation, by the 
ordinance of July 13, 1787, provided that for 
the purposes of temporary government the ac- 
quired territory should ^^be one district, sub- 
ject, however, to be divided into two districts, 
as future circumstances may, in the opinion 
of Congress, make it expedient." TJntil such 
time as the district should contain five thous- 
and free male inhabitants of full age, the 
government and the making of laws was com- 
mitted to a governor and three judges to be 
appointed by Congress. The governor must 
be the possessor of a freehold estate "in one 
thousand acres of land." The judges, and a 
secretary whose appointment was provided 
for, must each have an estate of five hundred 
acres. When the district should contain the 



requisite population, a representative assem- 
bly and council was provided for, analogous 
to a house of representatives and senate. The 
members of the assembly must have a free- 
hold estate of two hundred acres, and only 
those possessed of a like estate could vote. 
The members of the council must each have 
an estate of five hundred acres. No time or 
place is specified in the act or ordinance when 
or where the government thus provided for 
should go into effect. 

Article 5 of the ordinance provides for the 
ultimate division of the territory into States, 
as previously noted. After the organization 
of the government under the constitution, an 
act was passed August 7, 1789, vesting the 
appointment of the Governor and Judges in 
the President. 

The first seat of government of the North- 
west Territory was at Chillicothe, in the now 
State of Ohio. By act of Congress of May 
7, 1800, the territory was divided, prepara- 
tory to the admission of Ohio into the Union 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 



as a State, and the '^Indiana Territory" was 
erected, with the seat of government at Vin- 
cennes. 

By the act bf January, 1805, the Territory 
of Michigan was set off from the Indiana Ter- 
ritory, the same system of government being 
continued as originally provided, the seat of 
government being established at Detroit. By 
this act the sonthern boundary of Michigan 
was fixed by a line drawn due east from the 
southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan 
imtil it intersect Lake Erie, and the western 
boundary a north and south line through 
Lake Michigan tO' the northern boundary of 
the United States, the British possessions 
forming the northern and eastern boundary. 
This included on the south the strip of terri- 
tory that was subject of dispute with Ohio, 
and did not include the northern or Upper 
Peninsula. By act of Congress February 3, 
1809, the territory now forming the States of 
Illinois and Wisconsin was detacher from the 
Indiana Territory and given a separate terri- 
torial organization. Upon the admission of 
Illinois into the Union as a State in 1818, the 
Wisconsin portion was made a part of the 
Michigan Territory, but was detached in 1836 
and given a territorial government by itself. 
It was made a State in 1848, thus completing 
the quintet of States as contemplated by the 
ordinance of 1787, Indiana having been ad- 
mitted in 1816. 

Aside from the mere narration of events in 
connection with the government of the North- 
west Territory and its organization into 
States of the Union, the property qualifica- 
tion required as a condition of holding office 
and voting will strike the citizen of the pres- 
ent day forcibly, to say the least. No matter 
what the position or standing of the person 
might be, or what the value of his possessions 
other than land, he must be possessed of so 
much land in the district. But the condition, 
imposed at the time, was by no means a 
strange or unusual one. Our civil polity was 
inherited from England, where the landed 
proprietors were the governing class. The in- 
terests of the realm were deemed safer in the 
hands of this class than in those of the city 
denizen. The influence of cities in fact, even 
in the older countries, liad not reached the 



magnitude to which it has since attained. 
There is perhaps another reason by which 
this landed qualification may be explained. 
Large grants of land had been made to indi- 
viduals in consideration of their services in 
the war of the revolution, or secured by other 
means. The act of Virginia in ceding the 
Northwest Territory contained a stipulation 
that a tract of one hundred and fifty thousand 
acres in one body should be assured to Gen. 
George Eogers Clarke and the soldiers of his 
command in recognition of their services in 
thd war of the revolution, and that other 
grants should be assured to other persons for 
similar services. It is a fair presumption that 
those holding these grants were influential in 
se6uring the adoption of the landed qualifica- 
tion in the governing act, in order that they 
might thereby wield the political power. But 
the territory became rapidly settled by small 
proprietors as well as by those without hold- 
ings of any kind, and in the organization of 
the new States the property qualification was 
not imposed. It is worthy of mention, how- 
ever, that in the earlier days of the republic 
a property qualification was the rule in most 
of the States, and is no doubt still the practice 
in some of them. Another fact is worthy of 
special note, namely, that by the growth of 
the cities the political power has become 
largely centered in them, with a correspond- 
ing diminution of influence and power on the 
part of the rural population. 

The landed qualification for holding ofiice 
and voting necessarily governed in Michigan 
until it was changed by act of Congress. In 
the matter of choosing a delegate to Congress 
from Michigan there was an authorized de- 
parture from the terms of the ordinance. The 
latter provided that the delegate should be 
elected by the Legislative Council, but Con- 
gress, by act of February 16, 1819, author- 
ized the election of a delegate from Michigan 
by popular vote, all white male citizens 
twenty-one years of age, who had resided in 
the territory one year, and who had paid a 
county or territorial tax, being entitled to 
vote for such delegate. By a subsequent act 
the right to vote at all elections, and to hold 
office, was similarly conferred. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT. 



The Right to Statehood — Adoption of the Constitu- 
tion and Election of State Officers — ^Meeting of 
the Legislature — Election of United States Sena- 
tors—The Disputed Boundary — Objections to the 
Admission of the State — Judge Campbell's View 
of the Case, and Other Authorities — Terms Pro- 
posed by Congress — Military Demonstrations — A 
New Territorial Governor Appointed — The Slav- 
ery Question a Factor— Two Conventions of 
Assent — Final Admission of the State — ^Calender 
of Events Leading Up to Statehood — Seat of 
Government and State Capitol. 

The resident population of Michigan, other 
than Indian, when it came into possession of 
the United States, was very smaU. It is given 
as 551 in the year 1800; 4,762 in 1810; 
8,896 in 1820, and 31,639 in 1830. The 
last named decade shows a marked increase 
as coipipared with the one immediately pre- 
ceding. But the ratio of increase was greatly 
exceeded during the next decade, 1830 to 
1840, when the population had reached 212,- 
267. The increase was so marked up to the 
middle of the decade (87,273, according to a 
census taken by authority of the Legislative 
Council in 1834), that steps were taken for 
the organization of ^ State government. This 
step the people of the territory, represented 
by their Legislative Council, had a right to 
take, -without an enabling act by Congress, 
as has been the custoni with reference to 
inchoate States other than those forming part 
of the Northwest Territory, and as was (Jone 
also in the case of Illinois. The ordinance 
of 1787, as h^s been heretofore stated, pro- 
vided that the territory should ultimately be 
formed into States, one pr two of which should 
be north of a given line. 

Congress had already (1835), and long be- 
fore that time, organized three States south of 
the line, though encroaching upon territory 
north of it. It had organized on^ Territory 
(Michigan) north of the line, with defined 
boundaries, and there was no moral question 
but that this territory would form one State, 
^nd that the remaining territory north of the 
line would form another State. Michigan, 
therefore, actiiig under the clause of the or- 



dinance which provided that when any State 
should have sixty thousand free inhabitants it 
should ^^be at liberty to form a permanent 
constitution and State government,'^ and be 
admitted a^ q. member of the confederation 
on 9, perfect equality with the oth^r States, 
took steps in the year 183S for assuming full 
statehood, An act was passed by the Legis- 
lative Council January ,36, 1835, for an elec- 
tion to be held an Saturday, the 4th day of the 
following April, for the choice of delegates to 
a convention to frame a State constitution. 
The convention was to meet at the capitol in 
Detroit on the second Monday of May, with 
power to adjourn its sitting to any other place 
Avithin th^ Territory. The convention met 
on the second Monday of May and concluded 
its work in Detroit. The: x^onstitution framed 
by it was submitted to a vote of th0, people an 
the first Monday of October, State officers 
and a legislature being chosen at the same 
time-T-the election of the latter tO' h^YC effect 
only in case of the ratificatioii of the constitu- 
tion by popular vote. The^ constitution was^ 
however, adopted by a vote of 6,299 in its 
favor to 1,359 against. The Legislature met 
and organized on the first Monday of Novem- 
ber, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor 
Avere duly installed (Stevens T. Mason, known 
as the boy Governor, as Governor, and Ed- 
ward Mundy as Lieutenant Governor), and 
the wheels of the State government were 
formally set in motion. One of the earliest 
acts of the Legislature was the election of 
two United States senators, elohn Norvel and 
Lucius Lyon being chosen. Isaac E. Crary 
had been elected member of the lower house 
of Congress at the October election. Thus far 
the new ship of state (to use a metaphor) had 
proceeded on its voyage without a ripple, but 
breakers were ahead. 

The constitution of the State, and her appli- 
cation for admission as a State qi the Union, 
were subrnitted to the United States Senate 
December 9, 1835, in a naessage from Presi- 
dent Jackson. A motion to admit the sana- 



6 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 



tors from Michigan to seats on the floor of the 
Senate met with opposition. The constitu- 
tion of the State, as adopted, placed its south- 
em boundary on the line designed by the or- 
dinance, namely, on ^^an east and west line 
drawn through the southerly bend or extreme 
of Lake Michigan." This would include a 
strip of land some ten miles in width then 
belonging, or claimed to belong to Ohio, and 
including the city of Toledo, and a strip of 
greater width in Indiana, from the Ohio line 
to Lake Michigan. If the principle were ad- 
mitted also, that the exact terms of the ordi- 
nance were to govern, it would rob Illinois 
of a broad strip on her northern border, in- 
cluding the city of Chicago, which would 
have gone to Wisconsin. The admission of 
Michigan, therefore, with her claimed bound- 
ary, was resisted especially by the three States 
of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. It was also 
objected that she had assumed State sover- 
eignty without the assent of Congress pre- 
viously obtained in the form of an enabling 
act. This, as has been shown foregoing, she 
had a right to do, and this right is conceded 
by President Jackson in his message before 
mentioned. 

It would be outside the purpose of this 
sketch, and exceed its prescribed limits, to 
trace the history of the controversy or the evi- 
dence on which the conflicting claims were 
based. Judge Campbell, in his "Outlines of 
the Civil History of Michigan," treats the 
claim of Michigan as conclusive, both in law 
and justice. But the three States of Ohio, 
Indiana and Illinois had previously had the 
sanction of Congress, either direct or implied, 
to their northern boundary lines. They had 
at least title by possession. The gordion knot 
was cut so far as Congress was concerned, by 
the passage at the session of 1836, of an act 
fixing the southern boundary of Michigan as 
now established, and giving her the Upper 
Peninsula in consideration of the surrender 
by her of her claim of title to the disputed 
strip, and providing for the admission of the 
State upon her acceptance of the same. The 
merits of the controversy are discussed at 



some length by Judge Campbell, and the 
whole subject is quite fully treated in a mono- 
graph, with many citations of authorities, 
by Annah May Soule, of the State Univer- 
sity, published by the Michigan Political 
science Association. There is a collection of 
pamphlets in a bound volume in the hands of 
the State Librarian (the only one in existence 
so far as known), that gives much valuable 
information on the subject in the form of 
official documents. 

The subject of the northern boundary of 
Ohio was agitated at the time of her admis- 
sion into the Union, and her right to the 
claimed line was called in question. It at- 
tracted the attention of the Michigan authori- 
ties as early as 1820, as appears from com- 
munications of Gov. Woodbridge (then sec- 
retary of the Territory and acting-Governor), 
addressed to Gov. Brown, of Ohio, and to 
John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State 
of the United States. When it was proposed 
to form a State government in Michigan and 
to assert jurisdiction over the disputed terri- 
tory, the Legislature of Ohio, acting under 
the advice of Gov. Lucas, passed acts asserting 
jurisdiction, and looking to military measures 
to support the claim. Counter steps were 
taken by the Legislative Council of Michi- 
gan, and military forces were mustered on 
both sides of the border, but without coming 
into actual collision. Stevens T. Mason, as 
secretary of the Territory, was then acting- 
Governor, and it was under his advice and 
direction that these steps were taken. His 
action not being approved by President Jack- 
son, the President in August, 1835, appointed 
Charles Shaler, of Pennsylvania, to succeed 
him. Mr. Shaler having declined the ap- 
pointment, John S. Horner, of Virginia, was 
appointed on September 15. He reached De- 
troit a few days later, but was coolly received. 
The people looked forward to their coming 
statehood as the solution of their civil status, 
and regarded a change in the territorial ex- 
ecutive at the time, which they deemed could 
be for but a few weeks, as unnecessary if not 
offensive. Gov. Mason made no objection to 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



Mr. Horner assuming the nominal duties of 
acting-Governor, but the latter performed no 
official acts of importance. By direction of 
President Jackson he refused to recognize 
the State officers after they were elected, and 
nnder other circumstances a conflict of au- 
thority might have occurred. But he perhaps 
thought prudence the better part of valor, 
and removed to Wisconsin, which was still a 
part of the Territory of Michigan. Here he 
could execute the functions of Governor of 
Michigan, with Michigan left out. 

The interests of the then slave States en- 
tered more or less into the problem regarding 
Michigan. Up to the time of which we are 
writing and for some years subsequently, the 
effort was continvied to maintain a sort of 
^^balance of power'' between the free and 
slave States. They being equal in number, 
the study was to keep them so, so that each 
section would have equal representation in 
the United States Senate. Michigan would, 
of course, be a free State. Arkansas, lying 
south of Missouri, and forming a part of the 
Louisiana purchase, was prepared to enter the 
Union as a slave State. Her population was 
much less than that of Michigan, but it was 
within the power of Congress to admit a State 
regardless of the number of inhabitants. The 
acts, therefore, for the admission of both 
States, were made concurrent, but with the 
difference that the admission of Arkansas be^ 
came at once a fact, while the admission of 
Michigan was made contingent upon the con- 
dition elsewhere spoken of. 

The Legislature, by act of July 25, 1836, 
ordered an election to be held for delegates 
to a convention to act upon the terms pro- 
posed by Congress. The sentiment of the 
people, without party division, was generally 
adverse to accepting those terms, and the dele- 
gates elected reflected this sentiment. The 
covention, which met at Ann Arbor Septem- 
ber 26, voiced the popular sentiment by re- 
jecting the proposed condition. This has been 
called the first convention of assent, though 
it was more properly a convention of dissent. 
The people, however, had become impatient 



and restive under the delay and the uncer- 
tainty of their position. The administration 
at Washington was democratic, and members 
of the Democratic party in Michigan desired 
a completed statehood to be in harmony with 
the national administration. Democratic 
conventions in Wayne and Washtenaw Coun- 
ties had declared in favor of another conven- 
tion, and acting upon this demand several 
gentlemen, members of the Democratic party 
in Detroit, united in a call for a convention 
to be held at Ann Arbor on December 14. 
An election for delegates was held December 
5 and 6. The convention met and agreed to 
the terms proposed by Congress. The whole 
proceeding was irregular, but met a sort of 
silent acquiescence as the solution of a trou- 
blesome problem. Some protest was made in 
Congress by reason of the irregularity, but 
the existence of the State government was 
formally recognized by the admission of its 
jSenators and its one Representative January 
26, 1837. 

The following calendar shows the order in 
which the several steps leading up to the ad- 
mission of the State into the Union were 
taken : 

Jan, 26, 1835: Act of the Legislative Council 
providing for an election of delegates to a con- 
vention to frame a constitution. 

April 4, 1835: Delegates elected. 

May 11, 1835: Convention met; adjourned 
June 24. 

Oct. 6, 1835: Constitution ratified by popular 
vote; Legislature and State officers elected. 

Nov. 3, 1835: Legislature met; State officers 
installed. 

Dec. 9, 1835: Constitution and application for 
admission submitted to Congress by the Presi- 
dent. 

June 15, 1836: Act of Congress (with condition 
of boundary) passed for admission of State. 

July 25, 1836: Act of Legislature authorizing 
first convention of assent. 

Sept. 12, 1836: Election of delegates to conven- 
tion. 

Sept. 26, 1836: Convention met — declined terms 
proposed by Congress. 

Dec. 5-6, 1836: Delegates elected to second con- 
vention of assent. 

Dec. 14, 1836: Convention met — assent given. 

Jan. 26, 1837: State formally admitted by action 
of Congress. 

The first constitution (1835), provided 
that the seat of government should be per- 
manently established by the Legislature not 
later than the year 1847. Tt remained in De- 
troit up to this time^ the capitol building 



MEN OF PEOGRESS. 



being" the former territorial capitol, located 
on what is now known as Capitol Park. The 
building and site ultimately passed into the 
hands of the Detroit Board of Education, and, 
with (considerable additions, was used for 
school purposes up to January, 1893, w^hen it 
was destroyed by fire. The Legislature of 
1847, in obedience to the constitutional re- 
quirement, passed an act establishing the cap- 
ital at Lansing. There was much difficulty 
in agreeing upon a location. Nearly every 
interior town of much consequence in the 
State was proposed, only to be rejected. 
Lansing was finally agreed upon as being a 
point central to the then settled portion of the 
State. Tlie locating act is probably one of 
the shortest public acts every passed. After 
the enacting clause it provides ^^that the seat 
of governm.ent of this State shall be in the 
township of Lansing, in the county of In- 
gham." A supplementary act was passed, 
however, providing for the removal. This 
act provided for the laying out of a village 
plat to be designated as the town of ^^Michi- 
gan," in which the capitol should be located. 
^^Michigan'' was therefore the name of the 
capital of the State for one year, until, by act 
of April 3, 1849, the name was changed to 
Lansing. 

Commissioners were selected to locate a site 
within the town of Lansing, and the site of 
the present city of Lansing was chosen, partly 
because it was a ^^school section,'' there being 



but a single settler in the immediate vicinity. 
A frame building, costing, with an addition 
subsequently made, about $22,500, was erect- 
ed during the summer of 1847, and occupied 
by the Legislature on the first of January, 
1848, and continued to be used as the ^^State 
House'' until 1877. At the legislative ses- 
sion of 1871, an act was passed providing for 
the erection of a new State capitol. A "Board 
of State Building Commissioners" was pro- 
vided for, who solicited competitive designs 
for the new capitol, the preference being 
given to the design furnished by Mr. E. E. 
Myers. The cost of the building and inci- 
dental expenses was limited to $1,200,000, 
$100,000 payable in 1872, $200,000 in each 
of the years 1873, 1874, 1875, and 1876, and 
$300,000 in 1877. A preliminary appropria- 
tion of $10,000 was made for plans, etc., in 
1871, and in 1875 special appropriations for 
heating and ventilating, for changes and im- 
provements, roofing, cornice, etc., were made, 
amounting to $175,000. The length of the 
building, exclusive of porticoes, is 345 feet; 
width, 191 feet; height of lantern, 265 feet. 
The edifice accommodates the Legislature, 
State offices. Supreme Court, State Library, 
etc. The cornerstone was laid on the second 
day of October, 1873, and the contract tinie 
for its completion was the first of December, 
1877. It was completed and occupied by the 
State during 1878, the Legislature holding 
its first session in the new edifice in 1879. 



CONSTTTUTIOTf AL AND STATITTOKY HISTOEY. 



First Constitution and Statutes Similar to Those 
of New York— Method of Choosing State Officers 
and Judges — Time of Elections — Process of 
Amendment — ^Senators and Representatives, How 
Chosen — Salaries — Constitution of 1850 — ^Legisla- 
tive lin Its Character — Variances from the First 
Constitution — ^The More Important Amendments 
— Constitutional Convention of 1867 and Consti- 
tutional Commission of 1873— The Work of Both 
Rejected by the People— Subsequent Votes on the 
Question of Ordering a General Convention- 
Legislative Authority Under the Territory — Com- 
pilations of the Statutes in 1822 and 1833— Re- 
vised Statutes of 1.838 and 1846— Compilations of 
1857 and 1871— The Howell Compilation— The 
Miller Compilation— Reprint of Territorial Laws. 

The first constitution of the State was, in 



many of its features, modeled after the con- 
stitution of New York. The general statutes 
and polity of the State also' reflected those of 
the State of ISTew York, from which the 
migration to the State during the 1830 
decade, forming the great bulk of the popula- 
tion, was largely drawn. The only elective 
State oificers provided for by the constitution 
of 1835 were the Governor and Lieutenant 
Governor. The administrative officers were 
either appointed by the Governor or chosen 
by the Legislature. Judges were appointed 
by the Governor, subject to confirmation by 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



9 



the Senate. Late in the 1840 decade, how- 
ever, the constitution was so amended that 
judges and State officers were made elective. 
The general elections were held two days — 
the first Monday and Tuesday of I^ovember, 
following in a measure the practice at that 
time in New York, where the elections were 
held three days. A person entitled to vote 
at a general election could vote at any poll in 
the county in which he resided. Amend- 
ments to the constitution had to be approved 
by two consecutive Legislatures, and then 
submitted to popular vote. As the Legisla- 
ture held annual sessions, the process of 
amendment was less dilatory than might 
otherwise seem. An amendment proposed by 
the Legislatures of 1843 and 1844 changed 
the time of the general election to the first 
Monday of November. State Senators were 
elected by districts composed of several coun- 
ties each, the term being two years, but so 
classified that one-half were chosen each year. 
Representatives were elected in the counties 
at large. The fixing of salaries of all State 
officers and judges was left to the Legislature, 
the pay of members of the latter being limited 
to three dollars per day, as at present. 

The constitution of 1850 was a radical de- 
parture in some of its features from the in- 
strument that it superseded, without, in all 
cases, being an improvement. Legislation 
under the first constitution had in view a 
prudent economy in the fixing of official sala- 
ries, an ec(momy that was every way com- 
mendable in the infancy of the common- 
wealth with an immigrant population strug- 
gling to make homes for themselves and to de- 
velop the State. The framers of the consti- 
tution of 1850 seem to have assumed that 
these salaries were fixed for all time, and for 
a State grown to opulence, with a population 
numbered by millions. The salaries that had 
been fixed by legislation were by them made 
constitutional and unchangeable except by 
amendment to the fundamental law. In 
many other respects the new constitution be- 
came legislative in its provisions. It also 
restricted or forbade legislation on many sub- 



jects. The first constitution contemplated in 
express terms internal improvements by the 
State. Its successor forbade them except in 
the expenditure of grants to the State. Among 
the inhibitions upon legislation by the con- 
stitution of 1850 were: The granting of spe- 
cial charters, other than municipal; granting 
extra compensation to public officers or con- 
tractors; against special legislation in certain 
cases; against granting licenses for the sale 
of liquor — subsequently expunged. 

Many amendments have been made to the 
present constitution, the more important of 
which are summarized following: 

Banking corporations: Amending section 3 of 
article 5 so as to make stockholders ratably liable 
for obligations to the amount of their stock. 

Legislative sessions: Under the constitution, as 
first adopted, legislative sessions were limited to 
forty days. The amendment limits the introduc- 
tion of bills to fifty days, but places no limit upon 
the duration of the sessions. (1860.) 

Removals from office: Amending section 8 of 
article 12 so as to empower the Governor to remove 
public officers in certain cases. (1862.) This 
amendment was adopted by a vote of 3,180 in its 
favor to 1,273 against, the vote in favor being only 
about two per cent, of the voting population of the 
State. 

As to banks: Under the constitution, as first 
adopted, banks could be organized only under a 
general law. By the amendment, the Legislature 
was empowered, by a two-third vote, to create "a 
single bank, with branches." (18(52.) The organi- 
zation of the U. S. bankfng system rendered this 
provision wholly nugatory. 

Regents of the University: Providing for the 
election of eight regents in the State at large 
instead of one from each judicial district. (1862.) 

As to soldiers voting: Providing that Michigan 
soldiers in the field may be authorized to vote at 
elections. (1866.) 

Railroads: Authorizing the Legislature to fix 
maximum rates for transportation so as to guard 
against discrimination, and forbidding the con- 
solidation of competing lines. (1870.) 

Salaries: Increasing the salaries of circuit 
judges to $2,500 per annum. (1882.) Increasing 
the salary of the Governor to $4,000 per annum. 
(1889.) 



10 



ME-N OF PKOGKESS. 



Amendments proposing an increase in the sal- 
aries of State officers have been submitted at vari- 
ous times, and have been uniformly rejected ex- 
cept as above. Noteworthy under this head was 
an amendment voted upon in 1891 increasing the 
salary of the Attorney General. The vote as re- 
turned to the Board of State Canvassers was 69,- 
622 in favor to 68,385 against. Suspicions of fraud 
or error arose, and a recanvass was ordered by the 
Supreme Court, showing 69,248 for and 69,651 
against. A proposed amendment voted upon in 
1893 made a general increase in the salaries of 
State officers. First reported adopted, 64,422 to 
62,601. A recanvass for reasons similar to those 
above stated gave 59,317 in favor to 70,772 against. 
Fraud was so manifest in the matter that prose- 
cutions followed, and a conviction in one case in 
Wayne County, but there was no sentence, and the 
matter was for some reason allowed to drop. 

Improving roads: Authorizing the creation of 
county and township boards and the contraction 
of loans for improving highways. (1893.) 

Liquor traffic: Propositions submitted under 
this head will be found noted in the chapter on 
that subject. 

The constitution provides that every six- 
teenth year, beginning with the year 1866, 
"and at such other times as the Legislature 
may by law provide, the question of the gen- 
eral revision of the constitution shall be sub- 
mitted to the electors qualified to vote for 
members of the Legislature, and in case a 
majority of the electors so qualified, voting at 
such election," shall vote in favor, the Legis- 
lature shall provide for the election of dele- 
gates to a convention for the purpose of fram- 
ing a revision. In 1866 the vote was in 
favor of a convention. The convention met 
in 1867 and framed a revision, which was 
voted upon at the April election in 1868 and 
rejected, 71,733 to 110,582. 

At the legislative session of 1873 a joint 
resolution was passed for the appointment of 
a commission, two from each congressional dis- 
trict, to prepare amendments to the constitu- 
tion, to be submitted to the Legislature at a 
special session or at the next regular session. 
The members of the commission were ap- 
pointed by Gov. Bagley , and reported the re- 
sults of their labors to him on the completion 
of their work October 16, 1873. It was by the 



Governor submitted to the Legislature at a spe- 
cial session in March, 1874. It was considera- 
bly changed by the Legislature from the form 
in which it was reported to them, and was sub- 
mitted to the people at the November elec- 
tion in a single joint resolution as ^^amend- 
ments'^ to the constitution. It was to all in- 
tents and purposes a revision, and the manner 
of its preparation and submission was irreg- 
ular and outside of any process contemplated 
by the constitution for making amendments, 
and there is little doubt but that it would 
have been held illegal by the courts. Had 
it been approved by a clear majority of 
the voting population it might have been sus- 
tained as the latest expression of the popular 
will, but with a bare majority of those voting, 
it could hardly have stood the test. It is 
doubtful if the people who voted upon it real- 
ized to any great extent its questionable char- 
acter. Its failure may be credited largely to 
the liquor dealers, who opposed it through a 
State organization, and to the railway inter- 
ests, who looked upon it with disfavor. It 
was disapproved by a vote of 39,285 to 
124,034. 

In 1882, pursuant to the constitutional 
provision, the question of calling a conven- 
tion for the purpose of a revision was voted 
upon and the proposal failed by a vote of 
20,937 to 35,123. The same question was 
submitted by the Legislature at the general 
election in 1890 and again in 1892. It 
failed in the first instance on a vote of 16,431 
to 26,261, and in the other case it carried by 
the small m.argin of 703 votes, there being 
16,948 for and 16,245 against. But although 
the proposition had a majority of the votes in 
its favor, it did not receive the majority con- 
templated by the constitution. An amend- 
ment to the constitution may be ratified by a 
majority of the votes cast for and against the 
particular proposition, but a convention for 
the purpose of a general revision must receive 
a majority of all the votes cast at the election 
at which the question is voted upon. Not 
having such majority, the Legislature of 1893 
took no action in the matter. At the election 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



11 



in 1898, the third recurring sixteenth-year 
period, the question of calling a general con- 
vention was again voted upon, receiving 
162,123 votes in favor to 127,147 against. 
With this large margin in its favor it still 
failed, not having a majority of the total vote 
cast, the total vote- at that election being 
421,164. 

A brief reference to the history of the 
statutes of the State will appropriately fol- 
low a sketch of its constitutional history. 
Under the first territorial organization the 
Governor and Judges were both the makers 
and administrators of the law. Later the 
Legislative Council became the law making 
power. A revision and compilation of all acts 
in force was ordered by the first Legislative 
Council and printed in 1822 in a volume of 
some 700 pages. A further compilation was 
made and printed in 1833. AVith the or- 
ganization of the State government came the 
necessity for adapting the laws to the new' 
order of things. By act of the Legislature 
of March, 1836, William A. Fletcher was 
appointed a commissioner to prepare and ar- 
range a code of laws for the State. He was 
then one of the territorial judges and was 
soon after appointed chief justice of the 
Supreme Court of the State. The double 
labor delayed the preparation of the code 
until November 9, 1837, on which day the 
Legislature met in adjourned session for the 
purpose of acting upon the report. Their ses- 
sion continued into the regular session of 
1838, and the Revised Statutes of 1838 was 
the product. E. B. Harrington and E. J. 
Roberts were appointed commissioners to 
supervise the publication. In a preface it is 
said : 

"In the change from a Territorial to a State 
government, great inconvenience was experi- 
enced in adapting the territoriol law^s under 
the State constitution. They consisted of en- 
actments of a period of more than thirty years, 
commencing with those adopted and pub- 
lished by the Governor and Judges, a part of 
which had been re-enacted by the first legis- 
lative council of the late Territory of Michi- 



gan. Each subsequent council passed its ad- 
ditional quota of acts, seemingly without any 
regard to former enactments, and they appear 
in many instances without date of approval. 
Several repealing acts had been passed with- 
out designating the acts or parts of acts in- 
tended to be repealed, and frequent legaliz- 
ing and explanatory acts, all serving to con- 
fuse rather than explain. These various acts 
were scattered through loose and fragmentary 
publications, commencing in the year 1805.'^ 

The statutes of 1838 are comprised in a 
single volume of 688 pages, exclusive of in- 
dex, which is quite full. The work is admir- 
ably arranged and the mechanical execution 
excellent. 

The next (and last) revision of the statutes 
is that of 1846. The work was begun in 
1844, under an act of the Legislature of that 
year, by Judge Sanford M. Green. The re- 
vision was passed upon by the Legislature of 
1846, and Judge Green was commissioned to 
superintend its publication. The work is in 
one volume, but little larger than its predeces- 
sor, although of much closer print. It is not 
out of place to mention that this work was 
printed on the first power printing press 
brought into Michigan, and it is believed the 
first one ever used west of Rochester, N. Y. 

By the State Constitution, adopted in 
1850, it is provided that no general revision 
of the statutes shall be had, but that ^Vhen a 
reprint becomes necessary the Legislature in 
joint convention shall appoint a suitable per- 
son to collect together such acts and parts of 
acts as are in force, and without alteration, 
arrange them under appropriate heads and 
titles." Under this provision the late Judge 
Thomas M. Cooley was appointed in 1857, 
and the Compiled Laws of that year were the 
result. They are in two volumes, with con- 
secutive section numbers running through the 
whole, giving great convenience of reference, 
with marginal notes referring to decisions 
bearing upon the matter of the text. The 
next compilation, that of 1871, by Judge 
James S. Dewey, has nothing specially to dis- 
tinguish it from the former compilation. 



12 



MEN OF PliOGRESS. 



In 1882 the Legislature authorized the 
purchase and official use of Judge Andrew 
Howell's work, ^The General Statutes of 
Michigan in Force/' popularly spoken of as 
HowelPs Annotated Statutes. The original 
work is in two volumes, with very full nota- 
tions, and a supplementary or third volume 
published subsequently. 

A new compilation was ordered by the 
Legislature in 1885, and Lewis M. Miller was 
appointed to the work. The publication of 



the work' was delayed for some months pend- 
ing a suit at law in behalf of Judge Howell, 
who alleged an infringement of copyright. 
The case was, however, decided adversely to 
Judge Howell, and the work has since been 
published in three volumes, with an index 
forming a fourth volume. 

In 1873 a reprint of the territorial laws was 
ordered by the Legislature, which is com- 
|)rised in three volumes. 



THE JUDICIAEY. 



Judges and Courts Under the Territorial Govern- 
ment and Under the First Constitution — Associate 
Judges an the Counties — ^Increase in the Number 
of Circuits — County Courts — ^The Supreme Court 
— When Provided for and Organized — Provision 
for a Fifth Judge — ^Circuit Court Commissioners 
and Masters in Chancery. 

The "Governor and Judges,'^ as the law- 
making and law-executing power under the 
first territorial organization, have been else- 
where referred to, the civil machinery was 
aided by inferior courts. By act of the Gov- 
ernor and Judges, July 27, 1818, a Court of 
Probate w^as established in each county. A 
system of County Courts and of District 
Courts was also in vogue. A "Court of Gen- 
eral Quarter Sessions of the Peace'' was pro- 
vided for by act of November 25, 1817, com- 
posed of the justices of the county courts and 
the justices of the peace of each county. They 
Avere required to hold four stated sessions per 
year, their duties being similar to those of the 
board of supervisors as now constituted. 
Judicial officers (other than the federal 
judges), including justices of the peace, were 
appointed by the governor. Under the later 
territorial regime the federal judges became 
simply judicial officers, subject to the laws 
enacted by Congress and b}^ the Legislative 
Council. By act of the Council of April 13, 
1827, the three judges were constituted the 
Supreme Court of the territory, with two ses- 
sions of such court each year. The judges 
were, however, made judges of the Circuit 
Courts to be held in the counties. This plan 



was followed in organizing the courts under 
the State government, the judges being ap- 
pointed as judges of the Supreme Court (one 
of them as Chief Justice), but assigned to the 
several circuits as presiding judges. The 
County Courts were composed of a chief jus- 
tice and two associate justices. They had 
jurisdiction in civil cases of all matters not 
cognizable by justices of the peace up to one 
thousand dollars, and concurrent jurisdiction 
with the Circuit Courts in criminal cases, ex- 
cept capital crimes. The office of master in 
chancery existed, with powers analogous to 
those of Circuit Court commissioners at the 
present time. 

By the constitution of 1835 it was provided 
that ^^the judicial power shall be vested in one 
Supreme Court, and in such other courts as 
the Legislature may from time to time estab- 
lish.'^ It, however, provided for the election 
of judges of probate, for judges of County 
Courts, and for associate judges of Circuit 
Courts. The provision as to judges of County 
Courts was obsolete, as no County Courts ex- 
isted at that time, it having been abolished by 
the territorial law some years before and its 
functions transferred to the Circuit Courts. 

The judicial system^ under the constitution, 
Avas instituted in 1836. The appointment of 
judges of the Supreme Court was provided 
for, the judges being assigned to hold courts 
in the circuits. Two associate judges were 
elected in each county, who sat with the pre- 
siding judge in the trial of causes, thus con- 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



13 



tinuing a practice established under the terri- 
torial regime. These ^^side judges/' however, 
as they were called, were found to be more 
ornamental than liseful, and they were dis- 
pensed with in 1846. The State w^as first 
divided into three circuits, which had in- 
creased in number until by the constitution of 
1850 it was provided that the State should be 
divided into eight circuits, the judges being 
elective. The number of circuits has in- 
creased until there are now thirty-six, with 
six judges- in the AVayne circuit and two each 
in the Kent, Saginaw and St. Clair circuits, a 
total of forty-four judges. A Court of Chan- 
cery was established in 1836, but was abol- 
ished ten years later and its powers and func- 
tions transferred to the Circuit Courts. 

A County Court (which held no relation 
to the territorial court by that name, which 
had been discontinued as previously stated), 
was provided for by statute in 1846. A 
judge and second judge were to be elected, 
each for a term of four years. The second 
judge was to act only in cases where the judge 
was a party in interest or in cases of absence 
or disability. The court was to sit in term on 
the first Monday of each month, and during 
such part of the month as might be requisite 
for transacting the business before it. This 
court was the fruit of a reform agitation 
largely centering in Washtenaw county, 
which demanded cheaper and more speedy 
means of securing (or trying to secure) justice 
for the average citizen or poor litigant than 
was afforded by the Circuit Courts. It was 
not a popular institution with the lawyers, 
who dubbed it ''the one-horse court." It 
w^ent out of existence with the adoption of the 
constitution of 1850. The circuit judges, sit- 
ting together, constituted the Supreme Court 
of the State until the system was changed as 
hereafter noted. 

Section 1 of article 6 of the constitution 
provides: 'The judicial power is vested in 
one Supreme Court, in Circuit Courts, in Pro- 
bate Courts, and in justices of the peace,'' 



with authority on the part of the Legislature 
to establish municipal courts in cities. It was 
provided that after six years the Legislature 
might provide for what was popularly termed 
an independent Supreme Court, "to consist of 
one chief justice and three associate justices," 
to be elected by the people. This power was 
acted upon by the Legislature of 1857, and 
judges were elected at the spring election in 
that year, the court being organized January 
1, 1858. The term of the judges was eight 
years, and they were so classified that their 
terms expired successively every second year. 
It is provided in, the constitution that the 
court, when established, should not be 
changed for eight years. To what extent 
changes might be made after eight years may 
be a matter of construction. In 1867 the 
Legislature so far departed from the letter of 
the constitution as to provide that the judges 
should be elected as judges or justices of the 
Supreme Court, without designating any per- 
son as chief justice, and that the senior judge 
in service should be chief justice. An even 
number of judges was foimd to work great 
inconvenience, because on some questions of 
importance there was an equal division, and 
hence no decision. In 1885 a bill was intro- 
duced in the State Senate by Senator Hubbell, 
providing for an additional judge. An exam- 
ination of the convention debates of 1850, 
made at his request, showed quite clearly that 
the intention was to have a bench of four 
judges only. Whether this was his reason for 
not pressing his bill is not known, but no ac- 
tion was had upon it at that session. At the 
next session a bill was passed for a fifth judge 
with a ten-year term. 

It was provided by the constitution that the 
Legislature should, as far as practicable, 
abolish the distinction between law and equity 
proceedings. The office of master in chan- 
cery was abolished, and the election of officers 
known as Circuit Court commissioners was 
authorized. 



THE MILITARY RECORD. 



COLONIAL AND INDIAN WARS. 



First Conflict on Michigan Soil — One Thousand 
Indians Slain — Decisive Campaigns Elsewhere — 
Conspiracy of Pontiac — Battle of Bloody Bridge — 
Massacre of Mackinac. 

The first encounter of hostile forces within 
the Territory of Michigan, of which we have 
any record, was between the French and their 
Indian allies on the one hand, and the Indians 
in sympathy with the British on the other 
hand. The French and their allies were be- 
sieged in their fort at Detroit, May 13, 1712, 
but the besiegers finally decamped and en- 
trenched themselves at "Windmill Point, at 
the foot of Lake St. Clair. They were fol- 
lowed and themselves became the besieged 
party. After four days they surrendered, and 
all but the women and children were slain. 
The loss of the French and allies was sixty 
Indians killed and wounded. The enemy lost 
a thousand. "^ The French, in their dealings 
with the Indians, were more fortunate (or 
more politic) than their English neighbors. 
Their policy was one of good fellowship, of 
conciliation and fairness, thus avoiding much 
of the friction from which the English colo- 
nists suffered. 

The fate of nations is many times deter- 
mined by battles fought outside of their own 
territory. This has been the case twice, at 
least, in the history of Michigan. From be- 
ing a French dependency it came to the Brit- 
ish as a result of the wars between the two 
nations, 1754-63. The successful campaign 
of Gen. George Rogers Clarke against the 
British posts in the northwest during the war 
of the revolution secured Michigan and the 
I^orthwest Territory to the United States. 
But the soil of Michigan, like that of every 



♦Judge Campbell's History, p. 84. 



other part of the habitable globe, has drank 
the blood of those who stood in its defense. 
The conspiracy of the famous Indian chief, 
Pontiac, in 1763, is detailed in all of the his- 
tories. It is said that a council of Indians 
was held, which was addressed by Pontiac. 
He told them that it was the design of the 
English to drive the Indians from their coun- 
try, and that they were their natural and in- 
veterate enemies. Whether the last be true 
or not, or whether the first was true, as a mat- 
ter of design, the aggressive chieftain was a 
prophet of his race. The Indians have been 
most effectively driven from their country. 
Pontiac drew to his standard the Ottawas, the 
Chippewas, the Miamis, the Pottowatomies, 
and others. Their military operations ex- 
tended along the entire line of the waters of 
the lower lakes. They attacked the posts of 
Le Boeuf, Venango, Presque Isle, Mackinac, 
St. Joseph, Miami, Green Bay, Ouiatonon, 
Pittsburg and Sandusky."^ Detroit was the 
pivotal point to which the campaign was di- 
rected. It began substantially on May 1, 
1763, and the first act in the drama occurred 
some days later^ when the plot to capture the 
fort and garrison by surprise was betrayed to 
the British commandant. Major Gladwin. 
Pontiac and a party of his warriors, having 
been admitted to the fort under pretext of a 
conference, found the garrison under arms 
and prepared to receive him, and was con- 
fronted with the evidence of his treachery. 
There was thenceforth a well understood 
declaration of war. The Indians, as they 
passed out of the fort, turned round and fired 
upon the garrison, upon which they made suc- 
cessive attacks, more annoying than danger- 

♦Lanman, p. 44. 



HISTOEIGAL SKETCHES. 



15 



ous, and committed various acts of cruelty and 
barbarism. 

A regular state of seige was established, the 
fort was effectually blockaded and it supplies 
cut off. A vessel with reinforcements and 
supplies was sent from Niagara. Eeaching 
Point Pelee, the officer in command, appre- 
hending no danger, made a landing and en- 
camped. They suffered an early morning 
attack from the Indians, by which two-thirds 
of the command were made prisoners, the bal- 
ance escaping to Sandusky. The Indians 
compelled their captives to man the boats, in 
which they proceeded up the river to Hog 
Island (now Belle Isle), where they were mas- 
sacred, except two who made their escape. 
There was a practical termination of the war 
with the battle of Bloody Bridge, or Bloody 
Run, July 31. Although this encounter was 
a costly one for the English, they had been so 



fully reinforced by men, arms and supplies 
that they were beyond immediate want or 
danger. Intelligence of the treaty of peace 
between France and Great Britain placed the 
French inhabitants in the position of non- 
combatants, even were they inclined to be 
anything but friendly. The Indian force, 
unsupported, had gradually lost strength and 
confidence, and the British occupancy there- 
after met with no serious resistance. The 
massacre of the British garrison and post at 
Mackinac, June 8, 1763, formed one of the 
tragic scenes of the Pontiac conspiracy, but 
can only be mentioned in passing. No battles 
were fought on Michigan soil between the 
American and British forces during the war 
of the revolution, although Detroit was made 
the base of operations by the British for some 
of their military enterprises during the war. 



THE WAR OF 1812. 



Indian Discontent — Tecumseh and His Brother, 
"The Prophet" — The HuU Surrender — Massacre at 
the River Raisin — Perry's Victory on Lake Erie — 
Battle of the Thames and Death of Tecumseh — 
British Occupancy of Detroit— A British Provis- 
ional Government — Joint Proclamation by Gen- 
eral Harrison and Commodore Perry — Capture of 
Mackinac Island by the British. 

Michigan enjoyed comparative exemption 
from wars and rumors of wars until during 
the first decade of the present century. Dis- 
content with the Indian tribes then began to 
manifest itself under the leadership of Tecum- 
seh, a Shawanese chief, who seems to have 
been endowed with an organizing power equal 
to that of Pontiac. His plan was to surprise 
the posts of Detroit, Fort Wayne, Chicago, St. 
Louis and Vincennes, and to unite all of the 
tribes east of the Mississippi. He had a valu- 
able ally in a brother, called the Prophet, 
whose mission was to work upon the super- 
stitious fear of the Indians. He repeated the 
warning of Pontiac, that the design of the 
whites was to push the Indian steadily back- 
ward and to occupy his land. But except 
some cases of lawlessness and violence, the agi- 



tation seemed to bear no worse fruit than as a 
preparation on the part of the Indian tribes 
for becoming the allies of the British in the 
war which was then threatened and which be- 
came a fact in 1812. 

Gen. Wm. Hull was then governor of 
Michigan, and the defense of the territory fell 
to his lot. Troops were mustered in Ohio and 
dispatched to the territory. Among them 
the name of Lewis Cass appears as a colonel. 
After various manoeuvers and skirmishes on 
the frontier on both sides, the British forces 
under Gen. Brock crossed the river from 
Sandwich on August 16. Advancing up the 
river, they were preparing to engage the 
American forces, when a flag of truce dis- 
played by order of Gen. Hull stopped their 
progress and the disgraceful surrender of the 
town and of the American army without a 
shot being fired, became a matter of history. 
Comment upon the transaction and upon the 
character and motives of Gen. Hull would be 
entirely out of order in this connection. He 
was tried by court-martial for treason and 
cowardice, but was acquitted on the first 



16 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



charge and convicted on the other, and sen- 
tenced to be shot. He was pardoned by the 
President in consideration of his former ser- 
vices in the war of the revolution. 

The massacre of the River Raisin was the 
next notable event in the progress of tiie war 
immediately affecting Michigan. To recover 
the ground lost by the surrender of Detroit 
and to give the British forces ample occupa- 
tion, three armies were organized, threatening 
the Canadian frontier, that of the west being 
under Gen. Harrison, whose base was to be at 
the head of Lake Erie. An advance division 
of the army, composed of recruits from Ken- 
tucky, reached Frenchtown, on the River 
Raisin, January 13, 1813. On January 22 
they were surprised and attacked by a force of 
British and Indians from Maiden, now Am- 
herstburg. A sanguinary battle ensued, re- 
sulting in the surrender of the American 
forces, with a guarantee of protection from 
Indian barbarities. The stipulation on the 
part of the British may have been intended in 
good faith, although in view of the well- 
known cruel instincts of the commander, 
Proctor, this supposition may be taken with 
much allowance. The American prisoners 
were placed under guard, most of them being 
confined in two houses, and Proctor, with his 
regulars and Indian allies, took up a return 
march to Maiden, the ice affording passage 
way. Next morning many of the Indians re- 
turned, most of them drunk and decked with 
war-paint. The sequel hardly needs to be 
told. The houses in which the prisoners were 
confined were set on fire and the inmates 
burned within them. Others were cut down 
and tomahawked, until the massacre was com- 
plete. 

The naval command of Lake Erie now be- 
came a necessity for recovering Detroit, which 
was the key to the northwest. This was 
effected by the victory of Commodore Perry, 
September 10, 1813. This was soon followed 
by the evacuation of Detroit by the Britis^h. 
The water route to Canada beirg made clear 
by the victory of Perry, the American troops, 
under Harrison, occupied Maiden, September 



27. The place had been abandoned by Proc- 
tor and the fort and storehouses burned. On 
September 30 Col. Richard M. Johnson, of 
Kentucky, afterwards Vice -President under 
Van Buren, reached Detroit by a land march, 
with a division of Harrison's army. The 
British occupancy of Detroit continued from 
August 16, 1812, to September 28, 1813, 
substantially thirteen and a half months. Dur- 
ing the time many of the leading citizens were 
compelled by the British commandant. Proc- 
tor, to leave, because he feared, or pretended 
to fear, their influence in opposition to his 
rule. The citizens were subjected to many 
other hardships for which, however, they were 
amply repaid by events soon to follow. 

Proctor, in his retreat, had taken a position 
on the Thames river, near Lake St. Clair, iii 
Canada, his force consisting of some nine 
hundred regulars and fifteen hundred In- 
dians under Tecumseh. He was pursued 
and given battle by Gen. Harrison, with 
a force of about twenty-seven hundred, 
largely young Kentuckians, who were burn- 
ing to avenge the massacre of their fellows at 
the River Raisin. The battle, which occurred 
on October 5, was decisive in its results. 
Proctor was defeated and his soldiers, other 
than the Indians, were made prisoners. Te- 
cumseh was killed, and by his death the 
Indian power in the northwest was broken. 

During their occupancy of Detroit, the 
British, having virtual possession of the 
northwest, established a provisional govern- 
ment. Upon their return to Detroit, after 
the victory over Proctor, October 18, 1813, 
Gen. Harrison and Commodore Perry issued 
a joint proclamation for the better govern- 
ment of the territory, and guaranteeing to the 
inhabitants their rights of property and the 
enjoyment of their ancient laws and usages. 

With peculiar alertness, those in command 
of the British forces in Canada dispatched a 
body of troops to capture the island of Macki- 
nac, immediately upon the breaking out of 
hostilities. These troops, supported by a 
thousand or more Indians, were the first to 
apprise the American garrison at Mackinac, 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



17 



consisting of a mere handfnl of men in charge 
of a lientenant, that war had been declared. 
The alternative was presented to the garrison 
of a peaceful surrender or a massacre as the 
price of an assault, and as resistance would 
have been hopeless, the prudent course was 
adopted from necessity. An unsuccessful 



eifort was made in July, 1814, under Col. 
Oeorge Croghan, to recover the island, but as 
its possession was of little importance with 
Detroit secure to the American arms, it was 
thereafter suffered to remain in the undis- 
puted possession of the British till the close of 
the war. 



THE SHADOW OF TWO WARS. 



The Toledo War— A Bloodless Campaign — The 
Patriot War — Canadian Refugees in Detroit — 
Local Sentiment In Sympathy With Them — 
Efforts of State and Government Officials to 
Maintain Neutrality — ^Invasion of Canada at 
Windsor — Its Disastrous Failure — Participants 
Hanged and Transported — John H. Harmon — Dr. 
E. A. Thellor. 

Two wars that cast brief shadow\s over the 
borders of Michigan are usually adverted to 
by writers with more or less of lightness, bor- 
dering on the ludicrous. The campaign 
undertaken by Michigan, knoAvn as the To- 
ledo war, to assert her just claim to the strip 
of land in which the city of Toledo is situated, 
was one fully justified by the condition of 
affairs at the time. The land unquestionably 
belonged to Michigan, and Michigan had a 
right to assert her claim to it by force of arms 
as a last resort. A military force was regu- 
larly mustered and dispatched for the purpose. 
Had the expedition resulted in a sanguinarv^ 
battle, it would have been dignified in the his- 
tories, but as its greatest recorded exploit was 
a charge upon a melon patch, it has been re- 
garded as a burlesque. The peaceful issue 
was more to the honor of the chief actors than 
a bloody battle would have been. 

The ^Tatriot War" Avas of another stamp. 
The occasion of it was a revolt on the part of 
certain Canadians against British authority, 
and an effort to vrve^t Canada from the Brit- 
ish crown. The first outbreak w^as on the 
N'iagara frontier, but the scene soon changed 
to the west, and was the cause of a local agita- 
tion for over a year. In December, 1837, 
large numbers of refugees sought asylum in 
Detroit. The general sentiment of the peo- 
ple was favorable to them and their caiise, but 



international comity required at least a show 
of neutrality. It should be borne in mind 
that at that time popular feeling in the United 
States was specially hostile to everything Brit- 
ish. It could hardly be characterized by any 
term short of bitter, and was not modified by 
any refinement of sentiment among a people 
whose environment compelled them to wrestle 
with the stern realities of a life on the border. 
The spirit of '76 was still very much alive in 
the hearts of the Americans, and the recollec- 
tion of the Avar of 1812 was still vivid with 
many. Hence, while officially there was a 
sincere effort to ]:>reserve neutrality, the popu- 
lar voice favored the so-called partiots. Arms 
designed for the local militia readily found 
their way into the hands of the patriots. 
Steaiuboats on the river were either stolen or 
otherwise impressed into their service, and 
they were given aid and comfort by means of 
supplies and in various other ways. The 
patriots planned to establish a base of opera- 
tions against Fort Maiden at Gibraltar, a point 
on the river a few miles below Detroit. They 
occupied Fighting Island, and were shelled by 
the Canadians with considerable loss. In the 
mnter of 1837-8 a small company openly pa- 
raded at Pontiac, receiving some recruits 
there. The United States and State authori- 
ties co-operated in the effort to prevent overt 
acts that would compromise the country, al- 
though largely no doubt sympathizing with 
the patriots. The last desperate cast was made 
December 4, 1838, when a band of two hun- 
dred or more boarded the steamboat Cham- 
plain (which had doubtless been left in a con- 
dition to be so taken), crossed the river to a 
point a short distance above Windsor, and 



18 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 



burned the barracks. Their inarch was 
quickly cut short by the British regulars. 
They suffered a loss of over twenty killed, 
with many prisoners, and in their efforts to 
recross the river a number were frozen to 
death. Among those who were of the party, 
and who escaped, was the late ex-Mayor John 
H. Harmon, of Detroit, then a young man 
about twenty years of age. Several who fell 
into the hands of the Canadians during the 



imbroglio were hanged, but the greater num- 
ber were transported. The agitation was 
kept up for some time after this tragic end- 
ing. Dr. E. A. Theller, who had been taken 
prisoner during the early part of the trouble 
and confined in a prison at Kingston, had 
escaped, and was a resident of Detroit. In 
the winter of 1839-40 he was publishing a 
paper devoted to the patriot cause, entitled 
"The Spirit of 76." 



THE WAE WITH MEXICO. 



Causes Leading to the War— The Annexation of 
Texas — Michigan Troops in the War — ^General 
Taylor — General Scott — Alleged Political Schem- 
ing. 

The war with Mexico came as a conse- 
quence of the admission of Texas as a State of 
the Union. The Territory of Texas was a 
part of Mexico, but the northern portion of 
it was settled by emigrants from the United 
States, who set up an independent govern- 
ment. The government of Texas was recoo' 
nized by the United States as a sovereign 
power, but was not recognized by Mexico, 
although she had probably little hope of ever 
recovering the territory. It was the general 
expectation that the annexation of Texas, 
w^hich had been agitated for someyears^ meant 
war with Mexico. Among the last acts of 
the twenty-eighth Congress, in the expiring: 
days of the administration of President Tyler, 
was the act for the admission of Texas as a 
State of the Union, in 1845. Thereupon en- 
sued a political game of chess. President 
Polk's administration expected war, but did 
not want to begin it. Mexico would proba- 
bly have swallowed the annexation pill, even 
though a little bitter, if the River Neuces had 
been made the southern boundary. But the 
United States claimed to the Rio Grande, 
and Gen. Taylor, with the "army of occupa- 
tion," was ordered to the north bank of that 
river, metaphorically with "a chip on his 
shoulder.'' The Mexicans crossed the river 
in force and gave him battle at Palo Alto, 
May 8, 1846, suffering a defeat, however. 



On May 13 Congress declared that "by the act 
of the republic of Mexico a state of war ex- 
ists." In this way the war with Mexico came 
about. The record, so far as it affects Michi- 
gan directly, is a brief one. 

The first requisition for troops for the war 
was for a company of dragoons for the regu- 
lar army, which was soon raised. Gen. An- 
drew T. McReynolds, who died at Grand 
Rapids during the last months of 1898, was 
captain, and the men were recruited under 
his direction. A company of infantry was 
also raised for the regular army, and an addi- 
tional company for garrison duty. A full 
regiment of infantry was subsequently raised, 
with T. B. W. Stockton as colonel, A. S. Will- 
iams as lieutenant-colonel, John V. Ruehle as 
major, and J. E. Pittman as adjutant. This 
regiment was made a part of the force with 
which Gen. Scott made the campaign from 
Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico. 

. A word as to the course of the Mexican cam- 
paign. Gen. Taylor had won every battle in 
which he had encountered a foe in Northern 
Mexico, and in every case with greatly in- 
ferior numbers. The Washington authorities 
changed the plan of campaign, placing Gen. 
Scott in command of the principal army that 
was to march against the City of Mexico, by 
way of Vera Cruz. The greater part of Gen. 
Taylor's force was withdrawn to help make 
up the army under Gen. Scott. It was 
charged at the time that this was dictated by 
political considerations. The national admin- 
istration was Democratic, and Gen. Taylor 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



19 



was understood to be a Whig in politics. It 
was alleged that the principal campaign had 
been diverted from Taylor and his force deci- 
mated, lest his continned success should give 
him a prestige that would make him a dan- 
gerous rival in the next presidential cam- 
paign. But Gen. Scott, to whom the main 
command was given, was also a Whig and '<\ 
presidential possibility, and if there was any 



politics in the deal the more reasonable pre- 
sumption would be that it was designed by 
Gen. Scoti; himself to prevent the rise of a 
rival in his own party. There would seem to 
have been good military reasons for the 
change, however. The land march from Vera 
Cruz to the City of Mexico was less than half 
what it would have been by an ovprland cam 
paign from the north. 



THE GEEAT CIVIL WAR. 



First Steps Taken in Michigan— First Troops 
Raised— Successive Calls for Troops— Ready Re- 
sponse on the Part of the State— Enlistments, 
Drafts and Commutations — ^Whole Number of 
Troops Sent to the Front from Michigan — Table 
of Enlistments by Counties — Bounty Jumpers— 
'*We are Coming, Father Abraham"— Southern 
Refugees in Canada — C. L. Vallandigham — Cap- 
ture of the Philo Parsons— Bennet G. Burley— 
"Michigan in the War"— A Brief Summary- 
Tabular Exhibit of Michigan Regiments in the 
War— The Artillery Service— Col. C. O. Loomis— 
Grand Army of the Republic. 

As we reach the greater military epoch in 
the history of the State and nation^ the record 
must needs grow proportionately less as to 
detaiL A reference to the history of politi- 
cal parties will show the trend of events lead 
ing up to the armed conflict which raged for 
four years, beginning with the capture of 
Fort Sumter, April 4, 1861. For full details 
of the part borne by Michigan in the great 
struggle, reference is made to the work en- 
titled "Michigan in the War/' a volume of 
over 1,000 pages, compiled by Adjutant-Gen- 
eral John Robertson, under authority of the 
Legislature, from which this sketch is mainly 
compiled. 

The first act in the drama directly appeal- 
ing to Michigan was in response to the requisi- 
tion of President Lincoln, calling for a regi- 
ment of infantry from the State. A confer- 
ence, suggested by Gov. Blair, was held in 
Detroit, April 16, 1861, at which financial 
pledges were made on which the necessary 
work could be undertaken, there being no 
available fund in the State treasury for the 
purpose. By proclamation of the governor, 



the work of raising the ten companies of in- 
fantry was at once begun. The Legislature 
was called to meet in extraordinary session 
May 7, at which a war loan of one million 
dollars was authorized. For such specific in- 
formation ag can be given regarding the forces 
raised and sent to the front by the State dur- 
ing the war, reference is made to the tabular 
exhibit which appears in another place. 

The troops first raised were for a three 
months' service only, it being believed and 
hoped that the war would be of short dura- 
tion. The requisition for one regiment was, 
however, soon followed by a call for three ad- 
ditional regiments. The enlistment of 500,- 
000 volunteers was authorized by act of Con- 
gress, August 3, 1861, under which the quota 
of Michigan was 19,500. Quoting from the 
work above cited, page 20: "Michigan, in 
response to this requisition, continued con- 
stant recruiting, sending regiment after regi- 
ment to the field, and up to December, 1861, 
had sent to the front thirteen regiments of 
infantry, three of cavalry and five batteries of 
light artillery, with a total strength of 16,475 
officers and men. In addition to this, thir- 
teen companies had gone into service in regi- 
ments of other States, failing to find service 
in those of their own.'' Reports made to the 
adjutant-generars office in July, 1662, 
showed a total enrollment of 24,281 otficers 
and men,since the commencement of the war, 
to which, adding those gone outside and oth- 
ers incidentally mentioned, gave a presumed 
total of 27,000. Eecruiting was continued 
energetically and systematically. The con 



20 



MEJs^ OF PROGRESS. 



ference of loyal governors at Altoona, Pa., 
had advised President Lincoln to further steps 
for increasing the effective force, and on July 
2, 1862, a further call for 300,000 troops was 
made, of wliich the quota of Michigan was 
11,686. The next call for troops was for 
300,000 to be raised by draft, the quota from 
Michigan being the same as under the last 
preceding call, 11,686. Not to follow up the 
various calls, the last of which was on Decem- 
ber 19, 1864, for 300,000, the Annual Cyclo- 
pedia for 1865 gives the total under all the 
calls during the war at 2,7e59,049. Of this 
total, Michigan furnished, in round numbers, 
90,000; 4,281 having been raised by draft at 
different times, the others by enlistment. 
Under a law of Congress, drafted persons were 
allowed to commute by a money payment of 
$300, and of the number drafted 1,982 are 
reported as having commuted, paying into the 
United States treasury the sum of $594,600. 
Without being exact, it is near enough for 
the purpose to say that the State had sent to 
the front, before a draft was ordered, say 
30,000. The remaining 60,000 of the total 
of 90,000 demanded of the State would pre- 
sumably have been raised by draft in default 
of enlistments. So that of the 60,000 that 
might have been raised by draft, only 4,281 
were so raised; the remainder offered theif 
services by enlistment. Of this number (ovei 
55,000), there is no means of knowing wliat 
proportion was impelled by a patriotic sense 
of duty, and what proportion by the large 
bounties offered. It is presumed, however, 
that, obedient to the patriotic spirit then prev- 
alent, a sense of duty was the controlling, if 
not the only, motive, with most of them. To- 
ward the close of the conflict, it is said in 
"Michigan in the War/' page 60: "Wil;h the 
great increase of government. State and local 
bounties in 1864, commenced the decrease of 
patriotism to a great extent among those en- 
listing, and which continued to lessen and 
lessen, and at the commencement of 1865 it 
was not held out as any inducement to enter 
the service. Enlistments had become a mat- 
ter of bargain and sale, dollars and cents 



almost entirely ruling the action.'' WitJi this 
class the mercenary was the impelling motive, 
and many of them, after securing the bounty 
fled to Canada, so that the term "bounty 
jumper" became a current and most expres- 
sive, as well as opprobious, one. In many 
cases the same person, after securing the 
bounty, would skip and re-enlist in another 
place, not unfrequently repeating the per- 
formance two or three times. Along the Ca- 
nadian frontier, especially, this was a com- 
paratively easy matter. Very many of the 
recruits in eastern Michigan were drawn from 
Canada, although there is no warrant for say- 
ing that bounty-jumping was any more com- 
mon with this class of recruits than with any 
other class. 

As showing the sentiment that prevailed 
with the people of the north during the war, 
and their determination to prosecute it to a 
finish, the following song, inspired by one of 
the earlier calls for troops, is worthy of re- 
production : 

THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND MORE. 

We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred 
thousand more. 

From Mississippi's winding stream and from New- 
England's shore; 

We leave our ploughs and workshops, our wives 
and children dear, 

With hearts too full for utterance, with but a 
silent tear; 

We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly be- 
fore; 

We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred 
thousand more. 

If you look across the hilltops that meet the 

northern sky, 
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may 

descry; 
And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy 

veil aside. 
And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in 

pride. 
And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands 

brave music pour; 
We are coming. Father Abraham, three hundred 

thousand more. 

If you look all up our valleys where the growing 
harvests shine, 

You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming 
into line; 

And children from their mothers' knees are pull- 
ing at the weeds, 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



21 



And learning how to reap and sow against their 

country's needs; 
And a farewell group stands weeping at every 

cottage door; 
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred 

thousand more. 

You have called us, and we're coming, by Rich- 
mond's bloody tide, 

To lay us down, for freedom's sake, our brother's 
bones beside. 

Or from foul treason's savage grasp to wrench the 
murderous blade. 

And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to 
parade. 

Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have 
gone before; 

We are coming. Father Abraham, three hundred 
thousand more, 

Canada was a land of resort for the south- 
ern people during the war. Many southeri! 
families who were accustomed to spend the 
summer months at the north, chose Canada 
rather than the popular resorts in the north- 
ern States for their summer abode. The.-^e 
were sojourners rather than refugees. The 
refugees, however, formed much the larger 
proportion of the southern contingent in Can- 
ada. These were made up of refugees from 
the border States and of Confederate soldier- 
prisoners escaping and taking refuge in 
Canada. 

Clement L. Vallandigham was an Ohio 
man, and an ex- Congressman. He Avas by 
conviction an ultra State Eights Democrat, 
and could not give his assent to a war which 
(if successful) must be fatal to the State 
Rights doctrine. He was outspoken in his 
views, was arrested by military authority 
while martial law was paramount, at the place 
of his residence, and was transported across 
the border into the Confederate lines. He 
made his way into Canada and took up his 
residence at Windsor, where he was, so to 
speak, the lion of the day, receiving many 
calls form prominent men of Michigan, who, 
while not sympathizing with his views, felt, 
at the same time, a degree of admiration for 
his spirit. The Democratic national conven- 
tion in 1864 met in Chicago, at which Mr. 
Vallandigham was in attendance, having 
braved whatever danger there might have 



been of a re-arrest. This reference to a single 
fact of history is not with the view of recall- 
ing the causes of the partisan differences that 
existed forty years ago. It was inevitable 
that members of the Dejnocratic party, of 
strong convictions, should look with little 
favor upon this war, although it was beyond 
the power of man to avert it. Mr. Vallan- 
digham was one of these. He was a man of 
marked ability, honesty and sincerity. A 
reference to his tragic end will be pardoned 
in this connection, though not strictl}^ ger- 
mane to the matter in hand. He returned to 
his home and resumed the practice of the law. 
He was defending a man who was on trial for 
a murder alleged to have been committed with 
a pistol. In endeavoring to show how the 
shot might have been accidental, he placed a 
pistol in his pocket, and as he drew it out for 
the purpose of illustration, the weapon was 
discharged, the ball taking effect in his abdo- 
men. 

During the war there w^ere rumors at vari- 
ous times of plots, originating with the south- 
ern refugees in Canada against Detroit and 
other points along the border. One of these 
rumors was to the effect that a plot existed for 
firing the city on the night of October 3, 
1863. It occasioned a whirl of popular ex- 
citement, the fire department and the local 
military companies were cautioned to be in 
readiness for any emergency, and a special 
citizen police was organized. Other rumors 
looked to the seizure of arms in the State 
armory at Detroit and in the government ar- 
senal at Dearborn. There was but one plot, 
however, that came to a head. This plot con- 
templated the seizure of the steamboat Philo 
Parsons, then plying between Detroit and 
Sandusky, the capture of the ITnited States 
revenue cutter Michigan, the liberation of the 
Confederate prisoners on Johnson's Island, m 
Lake Erie, and the prosecution of such further 
enterprises as, by the fortunes of war, might 
come in the way of the projectors. The 
scheme was undoubtedly a part of the plan of 
campaign projected or approved by the Con- 
federate government at Richmond, and Jacob 



22 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



Thompson, who had been a cabinet officer 
under the administration of President 
Buchanan, was regarded as its chief organizer 
and promoter in Canada. Those who were to 
be the active agents in the work held commis- 
sions from the Confederate authorities for 
both naval and land service. On the morn- 
ing of September 19, 1864^ Bennet G. Bur- 
ley, who held a commission as an acting mas- 
ter in the Confederate navy, with several 
others, took passage on the Parsons at Detroit 
and w^ere joined at Sandwich and Amhersl 
burg, in Canada, where the Parsons called on 
her route to Sandusky, by others, some thirty 
in all. When near Middle Bass Hand, in 
Lake Erie, those in command of the Parsons 
were made prisoners, and the boat was taken 
possession of by the plotters. They also cap 
tured the steamer Island Queen, with some 
twenty-five United States soldiers on board. 
Failing to receive the signal of co-operation 
that was looked for on nearing Sandusky, the 
conspirators put about on a return course, 
touched at lighting Island, and landed their 
prisoners, and came to dock at Sandwich, 
where they abandoned the Parsons, and tlie 
boat was subsequently reclaimed by her own- 
ers. Burley was arrested by the Canadian 
authorities, and was in due course surrendered 
to the United States and brought to Detroit 
from Toronto, w^here he had been confined. 
It was found that there was no law of the 
United States under which he could be tried 
for any offense. But his offense having been 
committed on the waters of Lake Erie, within 
the jurisdiction of Ohio, he was tried in an 
Ohio court for robbery. There was a disa- 
greement of the jury under the charge of the 
judge, that Burley, holding the commission 
of the Confederate States, his act was an act 
of war and not a common felony. Pending 
a second trial, Burley escaped from jail and 
returned to Scotland, his native country."^ 

With the close of the war, the Michigan 
troops were the first to receive homing orders, 
the first to arrive being the Twentieth regi- 
ment, June 4, 1865, and the last the Third 
and Fourth, June 10, 1866. A welcoming 
address, in the form of a proclamation, was 
issued by Governor Crapo. 

The annexed tabular exhibits of the organ- 
ization and service of Michigan regiments in 
the war give much information in condens<Ml 
form, and will be found of interest. 



♦Letter of Hon. Alfred Russell, Michigan in 
War, p. 137. 



o 

< 
> 

< 
U 



1^ fcj 



iO CO iO 
tH rl rH 


1865 
1865 
1865 






Aug. 
Feb. 
July 


Sept. 
July 
Nov. 



asvasiQ ^o aaiQ 


i-'^OiGOCOOt-OCOOM^ 

tocDr-c^cocc>'<!t<05io^T-i 


Killed and 

Died 
OF Wounds. 


•U9M 




•SJ90IJJO 




SaHSIKHIHS ONY 

saaxivg ao -o^ 


tH O lO O^ H — i — ^Oi IC CO «D 
T-i i> Cv* Oi CO ic »o to 









o 









'"' GO tHt-H 



.CO 

00 ">-^ 



PP 



• <^* CQ --; 

"• Xi QO fTi '^ 
^^^22 00 



OiO 






. . co$2'^ 

. A- 50 ^ CO 
•OOtH^t-i 

' >^>^> 6 

• o3 03 O OJ 



■ o 

o 






of bo 



PQd 



^ "• Q S 



F'^ 



H'^fe-pa^O^^^HX 



a 

p.j-. o o 
o > o ±i 

SI'S I 



03 08 



*o 'S '^ 'o o '^ '^ 3 



OS 
, ^' 

/C ^^ 

'.f ^-< M "** '^^ <-" ^^ .^~i O ^ . ^ 

COOPPOOl^OOM 



Cu o 
o3 o 

§5 



ga§sgS.|ass5) 

..^ fli Kft «■> T* .-tK^ ni fen nnr*^ 









g*s 

'E ^ 

TO 

P ^ 

O) O 
O CO 

. o 

Pi M 



cS P 
n3 CO 



|.s 



p ^ 
p p^ 

o o 
*M-x3 

• £ 5 



03 p <X» 

£^^ 

O 03 05 

+i "S be oc 

1^ .1 

> ^S*"* 
stir's .■§ 

a> ^^ rt S 

oBsa 

f-i O 03'T3 

P 1^ *S 

r"? P ^'^ 

O HH jj 4J 



Si 

Sop 



o 



•asvasiQ 5o aaiQ 



1<U 



•naju 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 

QOaO<X)aOGOaOQOQOQOC»00<X;0000C»00<X>0D00QD000000S00000000^ 

T--lT-il— •T-^THT-^T-HrHr-^T-HrHTHTHTH,-HTHTHl--lTHl-HTHTHrHTHTHTHTHTHTHT^ 

0« <M tH rH rH tH jx tH C<i rH C<? CQ tH tH <?:? ^ CO >* tH CQ CO CO CQ 

bb t^ t>^ 2 2 2 2 t>»if >^ hf)-^ fe'n-*^' -r t>^ t>.+^' i>^ <o <a (V Q) (V <X) o:) <v <x> <v t>^ O ^ <D ^S h^ . 

rjppppppsa)3'-ja>Rix>3^3SQ:)3j3^j3f3ppS3dS3;3j3j3a)da)P^ 



23 



^?2^^?S$5Ii2gS?t;:ir^^S•^^<X)oooo<^^t-'^■)«OTt^cQaoTi^-^oococolcooo50^ 
^^!*^^*^'^^^'^*^*^^'3^<30THos<»(^iooi^t>oso5(^^■rt<coiOO<^tcOTH(^^lO'<i^ 

r-l r-l »—•-• "^ tH r-1 (yj (^i T--I CO CO .— (?J r-l rH Oi tH rH CQ CQ CQ f-1 tH tH O:? tH tH tH CO 



^ J5 ^ £2 '^ *5 *^ ^ '^ '^ '^ 00 tH r^ — O QOO CO ^ CO QO O rH 05 JO CO ''^ 00 50 -tH »C • OS l> • 
C005^ O THOC00irH0D00i0t>Tt<<»OCQT-iQ0-r-t-lCi0C005O • O • 



•sjaoiuo 



'^12^'*'^*^ ;«OCQT-lCQO:it>iOr-iiOr-,COC^t- •!>COC0C0'*C0rHCOQ0-r-lr-l«C^«O 



'SaHSIKHISs;; QNY 

saaxj.yg ao 'o^ 



^22:2^^Si2<^22r^Sr^^3iioo5^x)^cQo?or-»05co30»ooaoo5oac^io -ocoos 

'^'«*CO lO COCQCOCOT-tCiJTH C-JtHCQOCO THOiTH (^<GQC^JC<iCQ •rHCQ 






O 
W 

K 
< 



H 



.r-;S:>t! 



I :|S|S|2S|2|S|| 



th •«£» 






Sol 



^ GQ r^ CO »0 Oi ^ 2 ^-^^ 

' ^^ ':li ^ '^ ^ ^X i 



'^ r^-l th oi '^ oi • CQ oi S --: 

QO^^ggooo^^oo^oo^ 

^^^rHTHOO-^OOrHOOi-lTH^^ 

t^ t> ^' J> ' :^' - of -oo' oT ^ -^'- 






CO . 
CO""* . 
00 «o '^ 
T-t 00 «o 
^tH CO 
CQ ^"^ 
tH«0 ^ 

^o« «o 
P- o o 



'^QO 

o 



! ■ ZS CO li CO "^ '^ 

l2 .l2 ^ « ;3 <^ ^ 



•"'"</>■> CO 1:0 CQ »^ 00 

"^ rH - ^"^ O 

O (D 



COCQCOO:?CO^COX>^^ 

oocooocooooooooo^QO 

T-iOOrHOOi-l'-'rHTH^TH 



■:^*o^ 



coco 

CO 00 
00 rH 



CO -05 -oTco ic o^i'ro ::-i 



O O C3 

n2 02 o 

Oh-5H5 



. . ^ 

OJ fl O 

Steffi 
^ %<^ 

§ • fe is 
Q^04 



• T-l ><^ ^ TH ^ rC5 • • T-i ^ 

•Op^QQ^HsfiH^ . . -^ GO <1 GQ <1 OQ -51 OQ P ^ 

. . . . .' ! . .* I a i • ^ 00 ! J . .' '. . 

^r^-..c-i.>-J... 



^ I CO Oi ▼-•*> "^ 



:o 






9^ S n-f^ 



b t! fl 
^ d <u 

S 2^ 03 



T3 






■ 3 2 " > ot: o^ S 






! «3 ^ 5? 

'3 '^& 



q; .^f 



<t1 






^^ 



C3 



' b "^ ^ 



OP 



X5 



«^ ? C3 

:^p^. 



§ S s § a 



fe o 



O'^'^ 03 
- 03 03 *" 



03 &H 



^ s 



■r" ^H 03 p H h 



a3gST3'5a3«o2Q5-= 



-§.'3 2 OP'S 



-^ ^o 



c3 p^ o o o) :; 






03 

'So ., ^ 

O 03 -M ^ 9 



y'a S S^ 



+j u oj ^ •; 



:3 a 

fi:ia3^t^t_'x-3'T^flim'wJt-.Qj'^:-.>-iCT).^wajQj.,-ciwi.^~ogrtLicgiL 



11 1-3 



ao3 ^^ 



o 

o . 

•sa| 

;~i OS <^ 




J-l M »-l 
P^ bo 

03 . 



a 



os'^ a 

O "r^ QD 
«^ fe 

fe --03 

o!r"gcc 

Sao 
'^ '^ -^ 
o^g 

^ a bo 
o o g 

^ g^bp 



y^ .1 



.p 

2 e^ o 

o^,d o 
a; +^0 

^ +j -•-= i^ 

'rJ &a ph 00 

a o) tSra 
Qj k:t3 "^ 

.5 GO "T <u 
bO {>>> 

fH a fl ^ 

<X) O P QJ 

o o "^-Sj 
2^ § p S 

gW «^ boo 
5^ a 



24 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 



The First Regiment of Light Artillery was 
formed under Col. C. O. Loomis, of Cold- 
water. The regiment consisted of twelve bat- 
teries, to which two were afterwards added. 
The regiment never served as a unit, the sev- 
eral batteries being assigned to service in vari- 
ous commands. Hence the facts of their his- 
tory cannot well be tabulated. The regiment 
carried on its rolls 3,333 officers and men. 
Battery "A,'^ of the regiment, was the famous 
"Loomis battery," renowned for the effective- 
ness of its service, its dramatic history and the 
equally dramatic history of its commander. 
The story of the gruesome travels of the com- 
mander's remains after his death makes a pa- 
thetic chapter in the history of the war. 

Michigan furnished forty-five regiments 
during the war. These, with an average of 
one thousand to each regiment, would repre- 
sent only one-half of the 90,000 credited to 
the State. But a number of the regiments 
were reorganized with an entire new enroll- 
ment, while many others received additions to 
make up for losses so as to keep their numbers 
good. Some of the regiments had on their 
rolls at different times over three thousand 
names. This will explain the apparent dis- 
crepancy between the number of regiments 
and the whole number of soldiers supplied by 
the State. In "Michigan in the War,'' page 
62-3, is a tabular exhibit showing the number 
of troops apportioned to each county under 
the several calls, and the number supplied bf 
enlistment and by draft. 

As supplemental to any history of the civil 
war, a reference to the Grand Army of the 
Republic — familiarly designated by its initial 
letters, G. A. R. — cannot well be omitted. 
The organization was first proposed by Major 
B. F. Stephenson, of Springfield, Illinois, and 
was perfected at that place in 1866. Its ob- 
jects are officially stated to be: 

1. To preserve and strengthen those kind and 
fraternal feelings which bind together the soldiers, 
sailors and marines who united to suppress the late 
rebellion, and to perpetuate the memory and his- 
tory of the dead. 

2. To assist such former comrades in arms as 
need help and protection, and to extend needful 



aid to the widows and orphans of those who have 
fallen. 

3. Tb maintain true allegiance to the United 
States of America, based upon a paramount respect 
for, and fidelity to, its constitution and laws; to 
discountenance whatever tends to weaken loyalty, 
incites to insurrection, treason or rebellion, or in 
any manner impairs the efficiency and permanency 
of our free institutions; and to encourage the 
spread of universal liberty, equal rights and justice 
to all men. 

In September, 1866, Gen. E. A. Alger 
went to Pittsburgh, Pa., and was made a mem- 
ber of the order. In May, 1867, at a gather- 
ing of soldiers and sailors in Detroit, an or- 
ganization was perfected and Gen. Alger was 
chosen department commander. He served 
imtil March 28, 1868, when, at an encamp- 
ment held at Detroit, Gen. Wm. A. Throop 
was elected to that office. At Lansing, Janu- 
ary 27, 1869, at an encampment held, Col. 
Wm. Humphrey was elected. Iln 1870 CoL 
C. J. Dickerson, of Hillsdale, was elected, and 
during this administration the order in Michi- 
gan virtually disbanded, as it did in several 
other of the western States, said to have been 
because of politics entering the counsels of the 
order. 

The supplement to the last published jour- 
nal of the encampment, held at Port Huron 
in June, 1898, is introduced by this para- 
graph : 

"In March, 1878, the Provisional Depart- 
ment of the Grand Army of the Republic in 
Michigan, barely existed. There were sup- 
posed to be in existence four posts — in reality 
there were but two that showed any life.'' 

From this it would appear that a provi- 
sional organization existed, with a view to the 
formal reconstruction of the order in the 
State. This was undertaken by Col. C. V. 
R. J^ond, of Quincy, Branch County, who Avas 
appointed by the commander-in-chief of the 
national organization as "Commander of the 
Provisional Department of Michigan." The 
formal reorganization was effected at a meet- 
ing held in Grand Eapids, January 22, 1879. 
Col. Pond was elected department commander 
and was elected for a second year in 1880. 
The annual gatherings of the order are known 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



25 



as encampments, the last one having been 
held at Petoskey, June 21-22, 1899, being 
the twentieth annual encampment under the 
reorganization. The order is distinctively 
military in its official nomenclature and in its 
forms and methods. Subsequent department 
commanders have been: A. T. McReynolds, 
Byron R. Pierce, O. A. Janes, R. J. Shank, 
Chas. D. Long, John Northwood, L. G. Ruth- 
erford, Washington Gardner, Michael Brown, 
H. M. Duffield, C. L. Eaton, Henry S. Dean, 
J. H. Kidd, Louis Kanitz, S. B. Daboll, Wm. 



Shakespeare, A. T. Bliss and Alex. L. Patrick. 
Russel R. Pealer Avas chosen at the Petoskey 
encampment in 1899. Col. Pond has been for 
some years past the assistant adjutant-general 
and practically in charge of the executive 
work of the order, having an office in the 
capitol building at Lansing. The order ha^r 
official recognition in various acts of the Leg- 
islature, and its reports are addressed to the 
governor. The number of posts in the State 
June 30, 1899, wtis (^S5, and the total mem- 
bership 15,287. 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN. 



War Loan Authorized — Mobilization of the Na- 
tional Guard — Regiments Mustered In — Sum- 
mary of Their Service — Gen. Henry M. Duffield — 
Col. Cornelius Gardner — The Naval Reserves. 

Early in the year 1898 a conflict of arms 
between the United States and Spain became 
inevitable. The legislatnre being in session, 
a loan of $500,000 was authorized to meet the 
exigency that was expected to arise, and to 
enable Michigan to act promptly in meeting 
any demand that might be made upon her for 
troops for the national service. On April 23, 
1898, President McKinley issued his procla- 
mation calling for 125,000 volunteers to en- 
gage in the war with Spain. Michigan's 
quota of this number was 4,104, to consist of 
four regiments of infantry of 1,026 officers 
and men each. On the following day Gen- 
eral Order No. 5 was issued for the mobiliza- 
tion of the entire Michigan National Ouard at 
Island Lake April 26, 1898, and the work of 
re-forming the Michigan National Guard to 
meet the exigency of the call made upon it 
by the President, was undertaken. Tlie four 
regiments were designated as Thirty-first, 
Thirty-second, Thirty-third and Tliirty-fourtli 
Michigan Volunteer Infantry, following in 
numerical order the infantry regiments of the 
civil war. On May 25 an additional regi- 
ment from Michigan was called for by the 
President, and was numbered as the Thirty- 
fifth. The five regiments were mustered as 
follows : 



Regiments. 



Thirty-first ... 
Thirty-second 
Thirty-Third... 
Thirty-fourth . 
Thirty-flfth. . . . 



When Mustered. 



May 10. 
May 11. 
May 20. 
May 25. 
July 25, 



Colonel 
Commanding. 



Cornelius Gardener. 
Wm. T. McGurrin. 
Chas. L. Boynton. 
John P. Peternnann. 
E. M. Irish. 



The Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Michi- 
gan formed part of the expedition under com- 
mand of Gen. Shafter against Santiago, and 
bore their full share of the hardships and dan- 
gers of that expedition."^ 

Col. Henry M. Duffield, of Detroit, was ap- 
pointed a brigadier-general of volunteers May 
27, 1898, and was in command of a brigade 
embracing the two regiments last named and 
the N^inth Massachusetts. He was the only 
general ofiScer appointed to a command in the 
volunteer service from Michigan during the 
war. 

While the Thirty-first, Thirty-second and 
Thirty-fifth regiments were never under fire, 
they were ready and eager for active service 
when tlie bugle sounded. After American rule 
was established in Havana, the Thirty-first 
regiment was one of those chosen for the 
policing of the island in order to prevent law^- 
lessness and possible insurrections in the in- 
terior. The Thirty-second and the Thirty- 
fifth never left the soil of the United States. 
The Thirty-first lost 17 men who died of dis 
ease in the service. The Thirty-second lost 
20. The Thirty-third lost 61, three of whom 



*Adjutant-Generars Report, 1898. 



26 



MEK OF PROGRESS. 



were killed by a bursting shell at Agn adores. 
The Thirty-fourth suffered most from yellow 
fever and lost in all 88 men. The Thirty - 
fifth lost 24. 

When the government decided to increase 
the forces engaged in putting down the Phil- 
ippine rebellion, Col. Cornelius Gardener and 
a large number of his men re-entered the ser- 
vice and left for the seat of war in Septem- 
ber, 1899. 

The Michigan Naval Reserves, consistint>: 



of 11 officers and 270 men, were detailed on 
the auxiliary cruiser Yosemite and saw service 
at Havana, Santiago, Guantanamo and San 
Juan de Puerto Rico, in all situations winning 
the approval of the regular naval authorities 
for the admirable manner in which they dis- 
charged their duties, and winning the respect 
and gratitude of Michigan for the honor con- 
ferred upon the State by their conspicuous 
gallantry in actual warfare.^ 

♦Adjutant-General Report, 1898. 



THE STATE MILITARY. 



Early Laws on the Subject — General Trainings- 
Derivation of the Custom — Fell Into Disfavor — 
Independent Volunteer Companies — Absence of 
Military Spirit — A Marked Revival Preceding the 
Civil War — A Demand for Legislation Favorable 
to the Military — ^Revision of the Militia Laws — 
The State Troops — Re-organization After the 
War— Encampment — Home Service of the State 
Troops — Michigan National Guard — The Naval 
Militia — ^General John E. Schwarz and General 
John Robertson. 

To persons of middle age and under, the 
early military history of the State will be 
scareely less entertaining than a romance. The 
constitution of the United States confers upon 
Congress power to "provide for organizing, 
arming and disciplining the militia.'' On 
May 8, 1792, Congress passed an act "more 
eilectually to provide for the national defense, 
by establishing an uniform militia throughout 
the United States." It provided for the en- 
rollment of all free white male citizens be- 
tween the ages of eighteen and forty-five 
yearSj except those exempt by law, and that 
each person so enrolled should "provide him- 
self with a good musket or firelock, a suflftcient 
bayonet and belt, two spare flints and a knap- 
sack; a pouch, with a box therein, to contain 
not less than twenty-four cartridges, suited to 
the bore of his musket or firelock, each cart- 
ridge to contain a proper quantity of powder 
and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot 
pouch and powder horn, twenty balls suited to 
the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound 
of powder, and shall appear so armed, accou- 
tred and provided, when called out to exercise 



or into service, except that when called out on 
company days to exercise, he may appear 
without a knapsack." The act required the 
militia thus enrolled to be "arranged into divi- 
sions, brigades, regiments, battalions and com- 
panies, as the Legislature of each State shall 
direct." Each battalion was required to have 
at least one company of grenadiers, light in- 
fantry or riflemen; and for each division at 
least one company of artillery and one troop 
of horse. There were specific provisions for 
officering and ordering the militia forces thus 
organized. 

The Legislative Council of the Territory, 
by act of April 23, 1833, after repeating the 
act of Congress, provided for carrying it into 
effect. The act is quite elaborate, covering, 
together with the act of Congress, some 
twenty-six pages of print. A company mus- 
ter, ^^for the purpose of improving in martial 
exercise," was required to be held on the first 
Tuesday in May of each year, and a regimen- 
tal muster, or "general training," once a year 
in the month of October. The officers, both 
commissioned and non-commissioned, and the 
musicians, of each regiment, were required to 
hold a three days' drill in the month of Octo- 
ber of each year. A court-martial was pro- 
vided for, to try offences and delinquencies, 
and a schedule of fines was prescribed, rang- 
ing from nominal up to one hundred dollars, 
according to the character of the offense and 
the rank of the offender. Fines for non-at- 
tendance at musters ranged from two to five 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



27 



dollars, and for appearing at musters without 
the required arms, one dollar, with twenty- 
five cents for lack of bayonet and belt, pouch, 
spare flints, knapsack, etc. 

The early militia trainings were an inherit- 
ance from earlier times. They had their 
counterpart in the ancient wappen-schaw (or 
weapon show), of Britain, which was a mus- 
tering of the yeomanry and gentry with their 
•weapons of offense and defense, for the pur- 
pose of practice and review. The armament, 
either by voluntary act or by requirement of 
law, became a necessity in colonial days, as 
the best and only defense against the Indians. 
It became a patriotic duty no less than a ne- 
cessity in the war of the revolution and the 
war of 1812, and it was continued as a matter 
of pride with the citizen-soldiery for many 
years thereafter. It was, in short, but a leg- 
acy from the ages, when war, or the means 
of prosecuting war for the purpose of offense 
or defense, was the chief study of the race. 
The arms, be it noted, were not furnished by 
the State, but each person Avas required to fur- 
nish his owm. As early as 1840 the system 
had fallen into disfavor. The musters were 
held, but there was no pretense of complying 
with the law regarding equipment. Men ap- 
peared in the ranks armed with sticks or with 
any kind of bludgeon that came handy, and 
many times in grotesque costumes. The 
whole tendency was to throw the system into 
ridicule and contempt, into which it had in 
fact fallen. It finally gave way, and with it 
the crop of colonels, majors and captains that 
had grown upon it. What had for years, if 
not for ages, been a system invested with di)>- 
nity, evoking the pride and eliciting the re- 
spect of the people, became a burlesque and a 
by-word, the best evidence, perhaps, that it 
had outlived its day. 

The act of 1833 provided for the organiza- 
tion of independent companies, but left the 
equipment to the members. Amendments 
were made to this act in 1838, 1840, 1841, 
1844 and 1845. A revision of the militia law 
was made at the Legislative session of 184G 
(page 241 of the session laws of that year), by 



which the act of 1833 was superseded. By 
this act the general parades or musters of the 
militia were dispensed with, but the organiza- 
tion was continued under what may be termed 
a skeleton form. The militia was divided into 
two classes: The "enrolled militia,'' embrac- 
ing all who were liable to military duty not 
belonging to volunteer companies, and the 
"acting militia," embracing all thus belong- 
ing. The volunteer companies were to be 
provided with arms and equipment by the 
State, but were to provide their own uniforms. 
They were required to parade on four Satur- 
days in May, and to hold a rendezvous or en- 
campment for three days, beginning on the 
second Tuesday in June. There was no pro- 
vision for paying the expenses of such gath- 
erings. 

Gen. John E. Schwarz had been adjutant- 
general of the State for many years, but after 
the political revolution of 1854 he was retired, 
and Col. F. W. Curtenins, of Kalamazoo, was 
appointed to the place. In his report for the 
year 1858 he deprecates the apathy that had 
prevailed in military circles, and states thac 
when he first entered upon his duties in the 
year 1855, of the ten or twelve volunteer com- 
panies having a nominal existence, there were 
but three that were entitled to recognition. 
All the others had been disbanded, and of the 
three it was said that they were made up of 
foreign-born citizens. But he reports that 
since the year named "an unusual flow of mili- 
tary spirit has abounded," and that there were 
then (1858) thirty-three companies on the 
muster-roll. A speculative thought may be 
indulged here, as to whether this outcrop of 
the military spirit w^as in any way prophetic 
of the storm that burst in 1861. Was it 
stimulated by a certain inner sense of some- 
thing to occur, but which was undefined and 
unexpressed at the time, for it is said that 
"coming events cast their shadows before?" 

A convention of those actively interested in 
the military was held at Kalamazoo, Novem- 
ber 30, 1858, for the purpose of memoralizing 
the Legislature in favor of certain changes in 
the laws. Sojuc ten points on which legisla- 



28 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



tion was asked were formulated, the more im- 
portant of which were some provision for rais- 
ing a military fund, and a restoring of the 
provision for courts-martial and courts of in- 
quiry, which had been abolished by the act of 
1846. The Legislature, at its session of 1859, 
responded to this memorial by Acts No. 54 
and 169. A military fund of $3,000 per 
year was provided for, and also a State mili- 
tary board, with other changes designed to 
add to the efficiency of the service. The vol- 
unteer uniformed companies went practicallv 
out of existence during the early days of the 
^vs.Y. They formed the nuclei for the organ- 
ization of the active force which took the 
field in behalf of the government in response 
to its call for troops. 

The Legislature, at its special session in 
1862 (Act. ISTo. 16), revised the militia laws. 
The uniformed companies that had before 
been known as the "acting militia" were given 
the name of "State Troops.'' The offices of 
adjutant-general and quartermaster-general, 
which had been discharged by one person, 
were made separate, and the office of inspec- 
tor-general was created. It was provided that 
the State Troops should have "so many pa- 
rades, encampments and other meetings of 
instruction, and full dress parades in each 
year, not exceeding ten full days, as may be 
prescribed by the State military board." One 
or more camps were authorized to be held each 
year, to continue not more than five days. The 
necessary expenses of transportation were to 
be paid by the State, and thirty-five cents per 
day to officers and privates alike for subsis- 
tence. The adjutant-general (Gen. John 
Robertson), in a special report to the gov- 
ernor, ISTovember 27, 1866, states that up to 
that time only three companies had been mus- 
tered into the service imder the act of 1862. 
In 1872 nine companies were reported. Pn 
1874 there were two regiments of eight com- 
panies each, which had increased to three regi- 
ments in 1876. In 1886 there were four 
regiments of eight companies each, forminaj 
a brigade, with a total force of 2,489. In 
1898 there were the same number of regi- 



ments, but two of them with twelve com-, 
panics each, making forty companies in all, 
being the statutory limit. 

Prior to 1860 regimental encampments had 
been held, but somewhat irregularly. After 
the close of the war the force did not reach a 
point in numbers calling for such an assem- 
blage until in the early seventies, when regi- 
mental encampments were held at different 
times and places during the decade. Begin 
ning with 1880, brigade encampments have 
since been held each year, except in 1881 and 
1885. In the former year, instead of the en- 
campment, six companies were detailed to ac- 
tend the centennial celebration at Yorktown, 
Va., commemorative of the surrender of the 
British force under Oornwallis, October 19 ^ 
1781. In 1885 the encampment was deferred 
in apprehension of some disturbances in the 
State at which the services of some of the 
force might be required. The first brigade 
encampment was held at Kalamazoo in 1880. 
Since that time these encampments have been 
held at Island Lake, a point on the Detroit, 
Grand Rapids & l^orthern railroad, near 
Brighton (omitting 1881 and 1885, as above), 
except as follows: 1888, Mackinaw Island; 
1889-90, Battle Creek; 1891, Whitmore 
Lake. 

The State troops have been called out to 
guard against popular disturbances on several 
occasions. The first was in 1877, during a 
general prevalence of unrest throughout the 
country. Regiments were ordered into camp 
at Jackson, Grand Rapids and Detroit. The 
order was simply to go into camp, without 
reference to the possibility of their active in- 
terference being required (as it proved not to 
be), but the precaution doubtless averted vio- 
lence that would very likely have followed 
some acts of lawlessness that had been com- 
mitted. In July, 1885, in consequence of 
disturbances threatening possible violence in 
the Saginaw Valley, four companies, at the 
request of the sheriffs of Saginaw and Bay 
counties, were ordered by Gov. Alger on duty 
in that locality. In 1894 similar disturb- 
ances in Gogebic county induced Gov. Rich 



HTSTORIOAL SKETCHES. 



29 



to order a rendezvous of four companies at 
Ironwood. Fortunately, in neither case, was 
the active interference of the military called 
for. 

Act No. 198, Public Acts,, 1893, made a 
number of changes in the law of 1862. The 
"State Troops'' (so denominated by the last- 
named act), are, by the act of 1893, to be 
known as the "Michigan National Guard," 
and a per capita tax of four cents on each in- 
habitant of the State is provided, in place of 
fifteen cents on the voting population, as by 
the prior act. The National Guard seems to 
have been effected by the Spanish war very 
much as the vohiuteer militia were by the civil 
war. The adjutant-general, in his report for 
1898, says: "The National Guard, as it ex- 
isted at the outbreak of the Spanish war, does 
not now exist. I^ must be built up again 
de novo. Of the members of the National 
Guard on the rolls, it was found, upon ex- 
amination, when they were called upon for 
service in the field, that twenty-three per 
cent, of them were physically unfit. The 
adjutant-general recommends "a complete 
and thorough reorganization of the National 
Guard, to the end that only those free from 
bodily defects and mental infirmities may be- 
come members." 

By Act No. 184, Public Acts, 1893, the 
organization of a naval force as part of the 



military equipment of the State, is authorized. 
It provides for the enrollment of those en- 
gaged in the commercial marine, similar to 
that required as to the land forces, and they 
are similarly classified. Those unconnected 
with any corps are to be known as the "reserve 
naval militia," and the organized force is to 
be knoAvn as the "Michigan State Naval Bri- 
gade." The provisions of the act follow, as 
nearly as may be, the same lines as the law 
governing the land forces. Three companies 
or divisions of the naval militia have been or- 
ganized — two at Detroit and one at Saginaw. 
The naval militia made a record in the 
war with Spain, which is noted under another 
head. 

John E. Schwarz was appointed adjutant- 
general in 1836 (the first under the State gov- 
erument), and held the place for four years, 
until the political revolution of 1839-40. He 
was reappointed in 1844, holding the place 
until 1855, when he Avas retired by another 
political change, but having served in all fif- 
teen years. John liobertson was appointed 
in 1861, serving until the time of his death 
in 1887, a continuous service of twenty-six 
years. No apology is needed for mentioning 
these two veterans, where it would be imprac- 
ticable to enumerate other officers of the State 
militia. 



EDUCATIONAL. 



EARLY AND CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEBS. 



The Ordinance of 1787 — Land Grants by Congress — 
Provisions of the State Constitution — First Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction — A Comprehen- 
sive System Outlined. 

Whatever interpretation may be given to 
the clause of the ordinance of 1787, which 
speaks of "religion, morality and knowledge/' 
the pledge and solemn injunction that "schools 
and the means of education shall forever be 
encouraged/' has been scrupulously observed, 
both by Congress and by those who have been 
called to administer the affairs of the States 
concerned. 

Liberal grants of land have been made from 
time to time by Congress for the endowment 
and support of universities, colleges and 
schools. The University of Michigan was 
established by act of the governor and judges 
of the territory, although not definitelv 
located and organized until a later day by the 
State. Acts granting charters to local col- 
leges and seminaries form a prominent feature 
of early legislation under the State govern- 
ment, institutions of this class, however, hav- 
ing largely given place to the modern high 
school, which covers a much wider field. The 
act of 1805, organizing the territory of Michi- 
gan, reaffirmed the provision of the ordinance, 
and the territorial authority, as early as 1827, 
enacted laws for the establishment of schools 
in accordance with the intent. In 1828 Con- 
gress placed the school lands under the super- 
vision of the governor and council, to protect 
and lease, so as to make them productive. The 
act of Congress of June 23, 1836, making cer- 
tain propositions to Michigan as conditions of 
her admission into the L^nion, declared : "That 
section numbered 16 in every township, of 
the public lands, and where such section has 
been sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands 
equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may 



be, shall be granted to the State for the use of 
schools." The constitution of the State de- 
clares: "The proceeds from the sales of all 
lands that have been or hereafter may be 
granted by the United States to the State, for 
educational purposes, and the proceeds of all 
lands or other property given by individuals, 
or appropriated by the State for like purposes, 
shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the in- 
terest and income of which, together with the 
rents of all such lands as may remain unsold, 
shall be inviolably appropriated and annuallv 
applied to the specific objects of the original 
gift, grant or appropriation.'' Another pro- 
vision of the State constitution largely aug- 
ments the primary school fund through speci- 
fic taxes received from corporations. Through 
the measures enumerated (and others that 
might be mentioned), it will be seen that the 
early condition is being religiously fulfilled, 
with an added and accumulating interest 
(speaking in a financial sense), as if in grati- 
tude for the wisdom and foresight that im- 
posed the beneficent obligation. 

The first constitution of the State (1835) 
contemplated the organization of the educa- 
tional forces into a complete system. The ap- 
pointment of superintendent of public instruc 
tion was provided for. While the superinten- 
dent has a general supervision of all educa- 
tional institutions in the State, the primary 
schools (which include as well the graded and 
high schools) are the more especially under 
his superintendence. The first superinten- 
dent was Rev. John D. Pierce, a minister of 
the Congregational church and a man of 
broad and comprehensive views. The act of 
the Legislature defining the duties of the 
superintedent, required him, among other 
things, to submit to the Legislature "all such 
matters relating to his office and the public 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



31 



schools as he may think proper to eommuni- 
cate." The duty was devolved upon him of 
preparing a system for common schools and 
a plan for a university and its branches. In 
his first report to the Legislature he submitted 
his plan, which defined the rights, po Wei's and 
duties of school districts; the duties of district 
officers, of township officers, school inspectors 
and townships; proposed the establishment of 
libraries, and plans for school houses; the 



establishment of academies as branches of the 
university, and a method of organization for 
the university. The officers of the system 
proposed for school districts were moderator, 
vice-moderator, director and assessor, and 
three township school inspectors, with the 
toAv^nship clerk as clerk of the board. "^ 



♦Public Instruction and School Law — F. W. 
Shearman, Supt. Pub. Inst, 1852. 



THE STATE UNIVEESITY. 



Act of Congress, 1804 — Judge Woodward's Pedantic 
Scheme — Second Act of Establishment, 1821 — 
Branches^ — Local Academies — The Branches Aban- 
doned. 

The University, as standing at the head of 
the educational structure, is properly given 
first place under the general head, ^'Educa- 
tion.'' The initiative of the University may 
be traced to the Act of Congress of 1804, by 
which a township of land was reserved to each 
of the divisions of the N^orthwest Territory, 
as prospective States, for seminary purposes. 

The first act looking to the establishment 
of a university in Michigan was by the gov- 
ernor and judges, in the year 1817. The act 
was drawn by Judge Woodward, one of the 
judges of the territory, a pedantic personage, 
with a fondness for airing his Latin. To the 
mind accustomed to the use of plain English 
in the affairs of life, the phraseology of the 
act is ludicrous, to say the least. The docu- 
ment is reproduced in the University Semi- 
centennial (1887), with note, stating the copy 
as published"^ has "apparently many errors of 
transcription." The University copy is said 
to be "an exact transcript of the draft in the 
handwriting of Judge Woodward, now pre- 
served in tlie University library." Any ver- 
bal variances between the two copies may per- 
haps be accounted for on the theory that the 
act as adopted differed more or less in its 
wording from the manuscript copy. 

But little progress was made in the estab- 
lishment of the "Catholepistemiad," beyond 



♦Public instruction and school law, 1852. 



the erection of a small building and the open- 
ing of a school, nor is there any record that 
the lottery authorized by the act ever materi- 
alized. That a lottery should at the time be 
deemed a legitimate means of promoting a 
higher education in which religion was to play 
a prominent part, stands in contrast to the 
sentiment of the present time, when lotteries 
are outlawed by both the State and national 
governments. 

In 1821 the Woodward scheme was super- 
seded by act of the governor and judges, en- 
titled "An act to establish a university." The 
institution was to be located in Detroit and to 
be under the management of twenty-one trus- 
tees, of whom the governor of the territory, 
for the time being, should be one, the others 
being appointed by the governor and judges. 
The corporate name of the institution was 
"The Trustees of the University of Michi- 
gan," and they were empowered to establish, 
from time to time, such colleges, academies 
and schools, depending upon the said Uni- 
versity, as they may think proper, and as the 
funds of the corporation will permit." They 
were given control of the land grants, and 
were empowered to receive gifts or dedications 
of money or property. The work begun 
under the Woodward act was continued under 
the new regime, but with no great .progress. 
Some local academies may have been estab- 
lished, which subsequently became branches 
of the University. There was at Pontiac a 
two-story frame building, with a cupola, 
known as the Academy, in which a school was 



32 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 



taught, presided over by Prof. Geo. P. Will- 
iams, subsequently and for many years an 
honored member of the faculty of the Uni- 
versity. This school was in operation in 1837 
(if not earlier), and must have antedated the 
organization of the University under a board 
of regents, and its establishment at Ann Ar- 
bor in the year mentioned. There was also a 
building at Ann Arbor, the counterpart of the 
one at Pontiac, and similarly designated, with 
manifestly an equal antiquity. Whether these 
buildings were the work of the trustees under 



the act of 1822, or whether they were built 
as local academies by local enterprise, there 
should be records to show. They may have 
had their origin through both agencies co- 
operating. But under whatever auspices, they 
undoubtedly suggested the idea of branches 
of the University, as recommended by the 
superintendent of public instruction, and in- 
corporated in the organic act of 1837. But 
however the idea of branches of the Univer- 
sity may have originated, the system was prac- 
tically abandoned in 1846. 



THE UNIVERSITY UNDER STATE CONTROL. 



Organic Act of 1837 — Located at Ann Arbor — Pro- 
posed Separate Departments for Females — State 
Loan for Building Purposes — First Opened in 1842 
— The First Professorships — Financial Embar- 
rassment — Elements of Hostility — First Gradu- 
ating Class — Dismissal of Members of the Faculty 
— ^Professor Ten Brook's Work. 

The real history of the University dates 
from the year 1837. By the organic act of 
that year, the government by trustees was 
superseded by a board of twelve regents and 
a chancellor, to be appointed by the governor, 
by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate. The chancellor was made ex-officio 
president of the board. From the language 
of the act it would seem that the chancellor 
was to be appointed in the same manner as 
the twelve regents, but by a subsequent sec- 
tion the twelve were to be classified by equal 
divisions, to serve one, two, three and four 
years, and there is no further mention of the 
chancellor in the act. The governor, lieu- 
tenant-governor, judges of the Supreme Court 
and the chancellor of the State were made ex- 
officio members of the board. The "chancel- 
lor" first spoken of should not be confounded 
with "the chancellor of the State," an officer 
standing at the head of the Court of Chan- 
cery, subsequently abolished. On March 18, 
1837, the names of twelve persons as regents 
were sent to the senate by Gov. Mason, but 
there is no mention of a chancellor. The or- 
ganic act was approved and went into effect 
March 18, 1837. By a subsequent act, March 



20, the location of the University was fixed at 
Ann Arbor, and by a still further act passed 
at the special session, June 21, it was provided 
that the chancellor should be elected by the 
board of regents (not being one of their own 
number), and that they should have power to 
pre«cribe his duties. The Governor was also 
made president of the board, and in his ab- 
sence the board was empowered to elect one of 
their own number president pro tem. From 
this action, it is not altogether clear what the 
functions of the chancellor were to be — pos- 
sibly such an officer was looked to prospec- 
tively as the executive head of the several de- 
partments when they should be organized. 
The discussion or mention of the matter is 
perhaps unimportant except as a reminiscence 
and as bearing upon a slight tempest subse- 
quently raised, and to which reference is 
made farther on. Three departments of the 
University were provided for: That of liter- 
ature, science and the arts, of law, and of 
medicine. A provision that will read a little 
curiously at this time contemplated, that in 
connection with each branch of the Univer- 
sity "there shall be established an institution 
for the education ' of females in the higher 
branches of knowledge, whenever suitable 
buildings shall be prepared." The manifest 
intent being that the branches being for males 
only, a separate institution, though under the 
same management, should be provided for 
females. 



HISTORTCAL SKETCHES. 



33 



In the discussions attending the organiza 
tion of the University, there was a manifest 
unwillingness on the part of some to encour- 
age the establishment of private seminaries, 
and a disposition to withhold charters from 
some that were proposed, the controllinsj 
thought being to center everything in the 
University and its branches. The conferrins: 
of degrees was reserved to (or at least strongly 
contended for), as the exclusive prerogative of 
the State institution. 

The land for the immediate site of the Uni- 
versity w^as donated by the people of Ann 
Arbor, and consisted of forty acres lying to 
the eastward of the then village. By act of 
the Legislature, April 6, 1838, a loan to the 
University of $100,000 was authorized, in the 
form of twenty-year bonds of the State, at 
six per cent., the interest and principal, as 
they became due, to be taken care of by the 
University. The proceeds of this loan were 
employed in building the first University 
buildings, consisting of a main building 
(w^hicli served the several purposes of stu- 
dents^ dormitories and study rooms, recitation 
rooms, library, and apartments for a])])aratu.s 
and museum), and four dwellings for profes- 
sors. The University was opened in its pres- 
ent home September 20, 1842, in charge of 
two professors — Prof. Williams, before men- 
tioned, and Rev. Joseph Whiting, both hav- 
ing been principals of branches. The former 
was an Episcopalian, and the latter a Presby- 
terian. They were each allowed a salary of 
$500 per annum and occupancy of one of the 
dwellings. Dr. Douglass Houghton, then the 
State geologist, had a couple of years pre- 
viously been appointed professor of geology 
and mineralogy, but with duties wholly vol- 
untary and without salary. Dr. Asa Gray 
had held the chair of zoology and botany on 
terms similar to those of Dr. Houghton, and 
on his resignation Dr. Abram Sager Avas ap- 
pointed to succeed him. In 1844 Rev. Ed- 
ward Thompson was appointed to the chair of 
intellectual and moral philosophy, and one 
tutor was employed. This comprised the 
working force of the University at the time 



of its first commencement. There was no 
graduating class until the year following, but 
class exercises were held in 1844 and one or 
two degrees were conferred upon examina- 
tion. 

But details in connection with the subject 
matter must necessarily be cut short. Dur- 
ing the first years of the active work of the 
University, four principal chairs were estab- 
lished, and the policy attained to select, for 
these chairs, men representing the leading 
Protestant religious denominations. There 
were some few appointments to chairs in the 
natural sciences that were made irrespective 
of religious predilections. 

The ten years following the opening of 
the University in 1842 may be regarded as 
the first period of its history. The report of 
the regents to the Legislature in 1843 repre- 
sents the institution as under great embar- 
rassment financially, with the necessity star- 
ing them in the face of suspending the work 
both of the University proper and the 
branches. The work struggled along, how- 
ever, and in 1844 some remedial legislation 
was had, not in the way of direct appropria- 
tions, but by accommodation transfers of lia- 
bilities, so that in 1845 the regents say in 
their report: 

^Tt affords the board the greatest pleasure 
to express the deep and grateful sense of 
obligation under which they feel themselves 
placed by the very efficient and opportune 
aid extended to them by the last Legislature. 
•:f ^ ^ Happily, all ground of fear and 
cause of complaint have been removed by 
the Legislative enactments." 

There was more or less of complaint 
against, and hostility to, the University, 
manifested in various ways, during the 
decade. Denominational colleges were con- 
testing the ground, and the localities that 
they represented felt a direct interest in pro- 
moting them at the expense of the Univer- 
sity. Secret societies among the students 
crept in, and were a source of irritation."^ 



* ''American State Universities and the Univers- 
ity of Michigan," Ten Brook, p. 192 and following. 



34 



MEF OF PROGKESS. 



The Medical department was opened in 1850, 
and some feeling grew np between the two 
faculties. There was no common head, no 
chancellor or president having been ap- 
pointed, and some feeling of jealousy between 
the two faculties was unavoidable. The first 
graduating class in 1845 numbered twelve 
members, the number graduated each year 
up to 1852 varying, sometimes above and 
sometimes below that number, the highest 
being twenty-four, in 1849. 

The first election of regents under the 
constitution of 1850 was at the April elec- 
tion in 1851, the regents then chosen enter- 
ing upon their duties January 1, 1853. The 
retiring board, however, at their final ses- 
sion, December 30, 1851, vacated the prin- 
cipal chairs in the literary department, those 
of natural philosophy and mathematics, of 
logic, rhetoric and history, and of the Greek 
and Latin languages. The reason for this 
action was recited in a resolution, namely: 
"That in view of the duty devolving upon the 
board of regents-elect to reorganize the 
faculty of arts in the University, and to ap- 
point a president, it is expedient that the 
board provide for that contingency by deter- 
mining the terms of the existing members of 
said faculty," etc. The terms were made to 
terminate at the close of the then academic 
year, June, 1852. There were reasons, how- 
ever, lying back of the one given that in- 
fluenced the action. The record is given in 
the work of Prof. Ten Brook, one of the de- 



posed professors, previously referred to in 
note. The other professors removed were 
AVilliams, Agnew and Whedon. Prof. Wil- 
liams was subsequently reinstated by the in- 
coming board, and Prof. Ten Brook was again 
connected with the University as librarian, 
1864-67. Dr. Louis Fasquelle, professor of 
modern languages and literature, was imdis- 
turbed in his seat, as were also the five mem- 
bers of the medical faculty. The enumera- 
tion here given comprised the working force 
of the University at the beginning of the 
year 1852, with some possible tutors and 
assistants. 

Prof. Ten Brook's work gives brief sketches 
of persons serving as regents up to 1852, 
among whom the clergy are quite well rep- 
resented, and it is said of Martin Kundig, 
regent 1841-44, that he was a Catholic priest, 
and the only one ever on the board. The 
first elective board consisted of nine members, 
and so far as appears the clergy were not 
represented, the membership being composed 
wholly of professional and business men. In 
surrendering their trust, the outgoing board 
adopted a memoir, prepared by Dr. Zina 
Pitcher, one of its members, giving a partial 
resume of the work of the regents under the 
organic act of 1837. Its more salient feature, 
however, is an argument against homeopathy, 
which was then clamoring for popular recog- 
nition and knocking at the doors of the Uni- 
versity for admission. 



THE UNIVERSITY UNDER THE NEW REGIME. 



First Elective Board of Regents — President Tappan 
— ^A Feeling of Unfriendliness Toward Him — 
Tempest Over the Term ''Ohancellor" — Other 
Carping Allegations— Friiits of Dr. Tappan's 
Work — The Astronomical Observatory — The Law 
Department — Remission of the University Loan — 
Dr. Angeirs Tribute — Removal of Dr. Tappan — 
President E. O. Haven — Acting President Henry 
S. Frieze. 



The first elective Board of Regents, as be- 
fore stated, entered npon their duties January 
1, 1852. On August 12, 1852, Dr. Henry 



P. Tappan was chosen as President of the 
University. The administration of President 
Tappan may be regarded as the second stage 
or period in the history of the institution. 
Dr. Tappan was a minister of the Congrega- 
tional denomination, though his work had 
been mostly that of teaching and authorship. 
He was at the time a resident of New York 
City. A feeling of unfriendliness met him 
at the threshhold. His appointment had been 
disapproved by the regular school of medi- 



HISTORIOAL SKETCHES. 



35 



cine because of his understood preference 
for the homeopathic practice. In his inaug- 
ural address he assumed the title of "chan- 
cellor'' instead of President of the University. 
It will be noticed that prior to the adoption 
of the constitution of 1850 the term chan- 
cellor had been uniformly used in the stat- 
utes as defining the prospective head of the 
University. What term was used in the ap- 
pointment as made, or in the notification to 
the appointee, only the records would show. 
Dr. Tappan had most likely read the organic 
law, which provided for a chancellor, and 
quite as likely had not read the constitu- 
tional provision, which provided for a presi- 
dent. The error was one which should have 
been explained and rectified in a friendly 
spirit, if that had been the desire, which it 
was not on the part of his opponents. In his 
inaugural he also dwelt upon the "Prussian 
system" as the model after which the Michi- 
gan educational work was patterned. In this 
he had the authority of the first Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction, by whom the Mich- 
igan plan was outlined. His utterances, how- 
eYer, were seized upon as evidence of his 
sympathy wdth something foreign and mon- 
archical, rather than American. He was re- 
garded as pompous and aristocratic, in har- 
mony with his predilections, and his assump- 
tion of the title of chancellor, which was de- 
risively Germanized as "kanzler,'' was her- 
alded as evidence conclusive that he was a 
Prussian, with the mistake of having been 
born in America. A fairly liberal liver, he 
was not averse to the decent use of wine, and 
fell under the ban of the ultra temperance 
folk as a wine bibber. 

In contrast with what was laid at his door, 
should be placed the record of what he ac- 
complished for the University and the prog- 
ress which it made during the ten or eleven 
years of his presidency. When this is done 
he must be written down as a man of broad 
and comprehensive views, of marked execu- 
tive ability, and of equal energy and force 
of character. This estimate of Dr. Tappan 
will be approved by those who were students 



under him at the University, of whom the 
writer was not one. A very fair and quite 
Incid analysis of Dr. Tappan's character will 
be found in Prof. Ten Brook's work, page 
229 and folloAving. 

The astronomical observatory owes its in- 
ception and its completion and equipment to 
Dr. Tappan. The first direct State aid to the 
University came through his efforts. Up to 
1853 the University interest fund had been 
charged regularly each year with the sum of 
$6,000 as interest upon the bonds authorized 
in 1838. In 1853 an act was passed remit- 
ting this interest for two years. Similar acts 
were passed in 1855 and in 1857, and in 1859 
the remission was made without limitation of 
time, thus making the $100,000 loan a vir- 
tual gift to the University. The law school 
was opened in 1859 and a building for its use 
was erected a year or two later. The law 
school was part of the general plan, and was 
not original with the president, but its estab- 
lishment at the time was made possible by 
the added resources due to his efl:'orts. The 
fruits of Dr. Tappan's work are epitomized 
by Dr. Angell, in his oration at the semi- 
centennial of the University, in these words: 
•'When Dr. Tappan closed his official career, 
after eleven years of service, the literary de- 
partment had more than quadrupled the 
number of students it had on his accession to 
office, the medical department had two hun- 
dred and fifty students, the law school one 
hundred and thirty-four, the total attendance 
was six hundred and fifty-two, and the Uni- 
versity was recognized on both sides of the 
Atlantic as a great and worthy school of lib- 
eral learning." 

Some of the stimulants to an increase in 
numbers were not felt during the 1850 
decade and up to 1863, as they have since 
been felt. The influence of the high schools 
as feeders to the University had hardly begun 
to be felt during that time, and the financial 
ability of the people had not received the im- 
pulse that it did as a consequence of the flush 
times occasioned by the war in the early 
sixties. At the close of the June commence- 



36 



ME^^ OF PROGRESS. 



ment in 1863, by a vote of the regents, Dr. 
Tappan was removed from the office of Presi- 
dent of the University, and from the chair 
of philosophy which he held. The episode 
cannot, from the necessity of the case, he en- 
larged npon. Efforts were made for his re- 
instatement by the new board which came 
into office the following January, but without 
avail. Dr, Tappan subsequently published a 
pamphlet covering a statement of his con- 
nection with the University and the causes 
attending his removal. 'No copy of this state- 
ment is to be found in the State Library, and 
any person having a copy can do the State a 
service by placing it in the hands of the 
Librarian. The same may be said of a b(X)k 
or pamphlet by Dr. A. J. Sawyer, of Monroe, 
giving a history of the contest for the intro- 
diiction of homeopathy into the University. 
Dr. Tappan, soon after the question of his re- 



instatement was finall}' settled, took up his 
residence in Switzerland, and died there in 
■188L 

The Rev. E. O. Haven, a minister of the 
Methodist Church, who had formerly held a 
professorship in the University, was appointed 
to the presidency at the time of the removal 
of the former president. He held the posi- 
tion until 1869, when he resigned to become 
president of the Methodist College at Evans- 
ton, Illinois. He was afterwards made chan- 
cellor of Syracuse University, New York, 
was made a bishop of his church in 1880, and 
died at Salem, Oregon, in 1881. Prof. Henry 
S. Frieze was made provisional president on 
the retirement of Dr. Haven, serving as such 
until 1871. He also served as acting presi- 
dent during the absence of President Angell 
as United States Minister to China, 1880-82, 
and died at Ann Arbor Dec. 7, 1889. 



THE UNIVERSITY UNDER PRESIDENT ANOELL. 



Appointment of Dr. Angeli—His Diplomatic Service 
— Acting President Hutchins— Incidents in the 
History of the University — Admission of Women 
— Introduction of New Schools and Elxtension of 
Courses — The Semi-Centennial and the Quarter 
Centennial of President Angell's Administration — 
A Comparative Summary — A Metrical Prophecy — 
Homeopathic Medical College — Annual Revenues 
— List of Acts Relating to the University. 

The appointment of the present president, 
Dr. James B. Angell, was made in 1871. He 
has held the office continnonsly for a period 
of 28 years. He was relieved from duty dur- 
ing his absence as minister to China, 1880-82, 
and again as minister to Turkey, during the 
collegiate year 1898-99. The duties of the 
presidency were filled during this latter 
absence by Prof. H. B. Hutchins, dean of the 
law faculty. 

The history of the University, for a score 
and a half of years has been without marked 
incident of a disturbing character, if we ex- 
cept the homeopathic agitation, which is 
briefly treated of farther on, and an imbroglio 
connected with the administration of the 



chemical laboratory during the latter half of 
the 1870 decade. 

The more important events of Dr. AngelFs 
administration have been the establishment 
of the Homeopathic Medical School, the ad- 
mission of women to equal privileges in the 
University, the addition of the College of 
Dental Surgery and the School of Pliarmacy, 
the establishment of advanced degrees in the 
several departments, and the extension of the 
law and medical courses to three years each. 

The semi-centennial of the University was 
celebrated at commencement time in 1887, 
and the twenty-fifth anniversary of President 
AngelFs administration was fittingly com- 
memorated in 1896. These two events form 
milestones in the history of the University. 
The two professors in 1842, with their $500 
of salary, have given place to some two hun- 
dred professors and assistants, with salaries 
fairly proportionate to the service. The num- 
ber of students has risen from a score (resi- 
dents of the State) to three thousand and 
more, representing every State in the Union 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



37 



and every country on the globe. The ex- 
penses of maintenance in 1843 (report of Re- 
gents), of $1,260 per year, with total receipts 
of $9,946, reach for the former, in 1897, as 
^'current expenses,'' $397,452, with total re- 
sources in ronnd nnnibers of $430,000. The 
small library of less than 4,000 volumes has 
grown to 130,000. The one college building 
for all uses is supplemented by a score of 
buildings devoted to special uses, which, with 
libraries and appurtenances, are valued at 
near $2,000,000, while the graduates of the 
institntion, to the number of 15,000, are 
found in all the useful walks of life, and in 
all parts of the world, barring those who may 
have paid the last debt in the natural order of 
things or have fallen martyrs as missionaries 
in foreign lands, or as heroes on the field of 
battle. And here it may be stated parentheti- 
cally that the University supplied a large con- 
tingent from its membership to the armies of 
the Union during the war of the States, and a 
due (piota during the late Spanish war. It 
may not be amiss to close this paragraph with 
a prophecy contained in a poetical effort that 
lays claim to no furtlier merit than its good 
intentions: 

From this Imperial Temple has gone forth 
An army potent, east, west, south and north — 
They hold in nation counsels honored seats — 
They mould the structure of new-forming States— 
Within the State that doth the Temple own, 
Their thought inspires the parliament and throne. 
Its revenues are ample and secure — 
Its life and usefulness will long endure, 
With broad'ning and expanding energy, 
'Till the whole continent shall bow to its decree. 

Eef erence is made elsewhere to the Homeo- 
pathic question as connected Avith the Univer- 
sity, and to the antagonism of the regular 
practice to its introduction. There seems noth- 
ing to be gained by tracing the struggle which 
eventuated in the establishment of the 'TIo- 
meopathic Medical College'' in 1875. It is 
regarded as a branch of the University separ- 
ate and distinct from the Medical Department 
proper, a distinction which seemed necessary 
to avoid a complete rupture Avith the latter, 
the controversy having previously caused the 



resignation of two of its professors. There is 

an annual appropriation of $6,000 in aid of 

the Homeopathic College. It has a faculty 

of eight members, which was the number of 

its graduating class in 1898. 

The financial receipts of the University for 

tlie academic year 1897-8 were approximately 

as follows: 

University interest fund |37,139 45 

l-6th mill tax 189,500 00 

Annual appropriation and miscellan- 
eous 18,937 23 

Tuition fees 177,383 62 

$422,960 35 

The item of $189,500, income from the 
l-6tli mill tax, will be swelled in future years 
io $280,000 by the Act of the last Legislature 
fixing the tax at l-4th mill on the dollar. 

The following list of acts relating to the 
University, beginning with the organic act of 
1837, will be found convenient for reference. 
The figures refer to the number of the act in 
the printed A^olume of Session Laws for each 
year, respectively : 

1. Organic Act— Act No. 55, 1837. 

2. Act locating the University— Act 70, 1837. 

3. Act relative to the disposition of University 

and School lands— Act 104, 1837. 

4. Act relative to appointment of Chancellor — 

Act No. 4, special session, 1837. 

5. Act amendatory of Act relative to University 

lands — Act 13, special session, 1837. 
0. Act releasing certain lands to United States — • 
Act 44, 1838. 

7. Act to extend time for payment on lands — 

Act 103, 1838. 

8. Act authorizing loan of $100,000— Act 118, 1838. 

9. Act for payment certain expenses Regents — 

Act 11, 1839. 

10. To extend time of payment on lands — Act 

16, 1839. 

11. To provide for sale of certain lands to settlers 

—Act 64, 1840. 

12. To amend Act to extend time, etc. — Act 87, 

1840. 

13. To reduce price of University and School 

lands— Act 67, 1841. 

14. Same object as last cited — Act 27, 1842. 

15. To provide for sale of certain lands — Act 

16, 1842. 

16. For relief of certain settlers on University 

lands— 91, 1843. 

17. Authorizing receipt of State obligations for 

University lands— 20, 1844. 

18. Fixing price of University and School lands — 

68, 1844. 



38 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 



19. For relief of University— 83, 1844. 

20. Relative to department of natural history— 

122, 1846. 

21. Relative to amount due fund from Lenawee 

County— 50, 1847. 

22. Setting apart specific taxes to pay interest on 

fund— 107, 1847. 

23. Joint Resolution relative to amount due on 

mortgages — 24, 1847. 

24. Authorizing sale lands near Toledo — 26, 1848. 

25. Authorizing sale lands in Berrien County— 

86, 1848. 

26. For relief of purchasers University lands— 

34, 1851. 

27. Remitting interest on loan for two years— 

60, 1853. 

28. Remitting interest on loan for two years— 

73, 1855. 

29. Requiring establishment Homeopathic chair . 

—100, 1855. 

30. Remitting interest on loan for two years— 

56, 1857. 

31. Regents to be elected in new judicial districts 

—5, 1858. 
'6%, Remitting interest on loan without limit— 

143, 1859. 
S3. Geological specimens, etc., to be deposited in 

library— 206, 1859. 
34. Amending Act relative to report of Regents— 

219, 1859. 

34. Joint Resolution for transfer of scientific 

works to — 5, 1861. 

35. For election and classification of Regents — 

143, 1863. 

36. Act to extend aid to, with Homoeopathic con- 

dition— 59, 1867. 

37. Homoeopathic condition of Act last cited elim- 

inated— 14, 1869. 

38. Concurrent Resolution favoring admission of 

women— 7, 1869. 

39. Appropriation $75,000 for new hall— 30, 1871. 
10. Amending Act relative payment for lands— 

67, 1873. 

41. Appropriating $25,000 for hall and $13,000 to 

cover deficit— 7, 1873. 

42. l-20th mill tax in place of aid Acts of 1867 

and 1869—32, 1873. 

43. Requiring appointment of two Homoeopathic 

professors— 63, 1873. 

44. Appropriating $6,000 annually for Homoeo- 

pathic department — 128, 1875. 

45. To provide water supply for University— 

74, 1875. 

46. Appropriating $13,000 to pay outstanding war- 

rants— 113, 1875. 

47. Appropriating $3,000 for two years for Dental 

School— 186, 1875. 

48. For establishment School of Mines in Univer- 

sity— 205, 1875 . 

49. Appropriating $7,500 for hospital and equip- 

ment— 207, 1875. 

50. Proceeds from land sales to go into State 

treasury— 23, 1875. 

51. Incidental provisions as to lands, Acts 23 and 

124, 1875. 

52. Appropriating $49,000 for sundry purposes 

University— 185, 1877. 



53. Resolutions" relating to defalcation in chemical 

laboratory. 

54. Appropriating $40,000 for museum— 56, 1879. 

55. Appropriating $55,000 for various purposes, in- 

cluding Homoeopathic hospital — 122, 1879. 

56. Bodies for dissection to be sent to University— 

16, 1881. 

57. Appropriating $160,000 for general purposes— 

60, 1881. 

58. Supreme Court Reports to be sent to library- 

lie, 1881. 

59. Dependent children to be treated at hospital— 

138, 1881. 

60. Appropriating $62,000 for general purposes— 

96, 1883. 

61. Amending Act relative to dissection — 83, 1885. 

62. Appropriating $107,500 for general purposes — 

191, 1885. 

63. Appropriating $155,000 for general purposes — 

243, 1887. 

64. Appropriating $206,789 for general purposes— 

145, 1889. 

65. Providing for treatment of paupers at Univer- 

sity hospital— 246, 1889. 

66. Appropriating $185,000 for general purposes — 

25, 1891. 

67. Reports of veterinary associations to be sent 

to medical library — 56, 1891. 

68. Relating to dental students and dental col- 

lege— 98, 1891. 

69. Property of Women's Association exempt from 

taxation— 143, 1891. 

70. Authorizing Faculty to grant teachers' certifi- 

cates— 144, 1891. 

71. As to inventory, etc., of property of State in- 

stitutions— 146, 1891. 

72. Act for l-6th mill tax instead of l-20th mill— 

19, 1893. 

73. Time and manner of payment of mill tax — 

53, 1893. 

74. Authorizing Regents to receive bequests, etc. 

—36, 1895. 

75. Trust funds to be paid to State Treasurer — 

140, 1895. 

76. Providing for admission to practice of law 

department graduates — ^205, 1895. 

77. For treatment of indigent poor at hospital — 

42, 1897. 

78. Providing for analysis of waters at University 

43, 1897. 

79. Amending Act cited in No. 76—93, 1897. 

80. Amending Act relating to dissection — 119, 1897. 

81. Amending Act relative to treatment dependent 

children— 233, 1897. 

82. Relative to investment of bequests, etc. — 86, 

1899. 

83. Increasing annual income tax to ^th mill on 

the dollar— 102, 1899. 

84. Relative to issue of diplomas to medical stu- 

dents— 151, 1899. 

85. Amending Act relative to subjects for dissec- 

tion— 193, 1899. 

86. Authorizing incorporation of loan-fund asso- 

ciations for the benefit of students— 250, 1899. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



39 



OTHEE STATE COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS. 



The Agricultural College— The Normal Schools- 
College of Mines— Schools for Deaf Mutes and 
the Blind— Educational and Reformatory Institu- 
tions. 

The Constitution of Michigan provides that 
''The Legislature shall, as soon as practicable, 
provide for the establishment of an Agricul- 
tural School." In pursuance of this provision, 
the Legislaiure, in 1855, passed an act "for 
the establishment of a State Agricultural 
School,'' which provided that the college 
should be located within ten miles of Lan- 
sing, on not less than 500 acres of land in 
one body. The location was made June 16, 
1855, on a farm of 676 57-100 acres, three 
and one-half miles east from the capital. 
About three acres only were cleared of tim- 
ber at the time of purchase. The soil is very 
varied, there being hard clay, clay loam, 
peaty soil, sand, sandy loam, alluvial plats, 
etc. The Red Cedar river runs through the 
farm. The college was opened to students 
May 13, 1857, and has been in uninter- 
rupted operation from that time. It opened 
in charge of the State Board of Education, 
with seven professors and instructors and 
sixty-one students. The management of the 
institution Avas in 1861 transferred from the 
State Board of Education to a State Board 
of Agriculture. This board is a body cor- 
porate, consisting, besides the governor of the 
State and the president of the College, who 
are ex -officio members, of six persons, who 
are nominated by the governor and confirmed 
by the Senate. 

The immediate management of the insti- 
tution is committed to a faculty consisting at 
the present time of a president and thirty- 
six professors, instructors and foremen, ex- 
clusive of the secretary, Avho is a member ex- 
officio of the faculty. 

The law provides that "The Agricultural 
College shall be a high seminary of learning, 
in which the graduate of the common school 
can commence, pursue and finish a course of 
study terminating in thorough theoretic and 
practical instruction in those sciences and 



arts which bear directly on agriculture and 
kindred industrial pursuits," and requires 
that "the full course of study shall embrace 
not less than four years." A full course of 
study is laid out, requiring four years to com- 
plete it, although students are received for 
shorter periods, for the study of select 
branches. The College is authorized to con- 
fer degrees. The law also provides that the 
institution "shall combine physical with in- 
tellectual labor," and it requires that stu- 
dents shall, with some exceptions, labor three 
hours each day. This labor is required on 
each afternoon of the week excepting Satur- 
days and Sundays, and is paid for according 
to its value at a maximum rate of ten cents 
an hour. The institution is conducted on 
the plan of making the expense to students 
as small as possible. Most of the students 
board in the College, and the law provides 
that "in assessing the price of board it shall 
be so estimated that no profit shall be saved 
to the institution." Tuition is free. The 
average attendance is over 400. The Col- 
lege has graduated 728 students, and has a 
library of 20,000 volumes. 

The State Normal School at Ypsilanti was 
established in 1859. Its object is the train- 
ing of teachers for educational work. The 
number of instructors is given in the latest 
report at 42. Number of students or those 
attending during the year, 958. This num- 
ber is made up, to a considerable extent, by 
local attendance. The whole number of 
graduates since the establishment of the 
school is given as 3,198. Number of vol- 
umes in library, 17,500. By Act of the 
Legislature, 1897, the title of "Michigan 
State Normal College" was authorized to be 
used in official reports of the institution, and 
by Act 52, ]a\^s of 1899, the name of the in- 
stitution was changed to correspond. 

The Central Michigan Normal School, at 
Mt. Pleasant, was established in 1895, by 
the purchase of the properties of a then ex- 
isting private institution. The published re- 
ports give 11 instructors and a membership 



m 



MEN OF ^EOGRESS. 



of 196. As in the case of the Ypsilanti 
school, the membership is no doubt to a con- 
siderable extent, local. The E^ormal students 
proper, or those who design to make teaching 
their occupation, are apportioned to the 
Legislative districts and admitted upon the 
recommendation of the members represent- 
ing the districts. 

By Act No. 51, laws of 1899, a third 
normal school Avas established at Marquette, 
to be known as the Northern State Normal 
School, with an appropriation of $25,000 for 
buildings and $10,000 for operating expenses. 

The establishment of a third normal school 
may be regarded as the development of a 
^'Normal School System," of whicli the State 
Board of Education has the general manage- 
ment. The position of President, as the ex- 
ecutive head of the system, has been recently 
created, to which Dr. Albert Leonard, of the 
Syracuse (K. Y.) University, has been ap- 
])ointed, with his official residence at the State 
iNTormal College at Ypsilanti. 

The College of Mines was established by 
, Act of the Legislature in 1885. Its special 
function is instruction in mining and metal- 
lurgy. Fifteen instructors are reported, with 
an attendance of 139, and a library of 12,500 
volumes. 

The character of the School for the Blind 
at Lansing and the School far Deaf Mutes at 
Flint, will be sufficiently understood from 
their tiles. The State Public School at Cold- 
water receives only dependent and neglected 
children who are free from physical taint or 
criminality,, and gives them care and instruc- 
tion until homes can be provided for them. 
The Industrial School for Boys^ at Lansing, 
and the Industrial Home for Girls, at Adrian, 
combine educational with reformatory feat- 
ures. These institutions all report to the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. Some 



general statistics of all State institutix)ns will 
be found tabulated under another head. 
There are some forty private and denomina- 
tional colleges and schools, business and 
medical colleges, and one law school, that also 
report to the superintendent. 

The "Industrial School for Boys'' was first 
established as the "House of Correction for 
Juvenile Offenders,'' to which girls as well as 
boys were committed. Its title was after- 
wards changed to that of the "State Reform 
School," and later to the name that it now 
bears. It was originally built with barred 
windows and other prison features, but the 
later policy has been to divest it of these 
marks of degradation, under the belief that 
boys can be more easily reformed and trained 
for usefulness in life by moral means. The 
inspiring thought has been that if a boy be 
once impressed with the conviction that he is 
a criminal and an inmate of a prison, the 
taint of criminality will remain with him as a 
detriment to whatever good intentions he 
may have. The evolution of this institution 
from its first conception to its later status is 
worthy of especial notice, as showing a 
marked change in public sentiment as regards 
the method of dealing with youthful way- 
wardness. The theory that punishment, by 
the rod of the parent or by the arm of society, 
was the best corrective, has given place to the 
conviction that it is wdser to cultivate the 
good in the young than to stimulate the bad 
tendencies by harsh treatment. There is still 
an element of restraint in the discipline of 
the institution, but it is mauifested only 
where the conduct of the inmate shows the 
necessity for it. The boys necessarily go 
there under sentence either for truancy or 
criminality, but when there their treatment 
differs but little from that of boys in a well- 
regulated family. 



inSTORTOAL SKETCHES. 



41 



THE PRIMAEY AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 



Views of the First Superintendent — Views of Gov- 
ernor Mason — Development of the High School — 
Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor — Teaching of Foreign 
and Classical Languages in the Schools — Changes 
in the School Laws — ^Comparative School Stat- 
istics — Former Superintendents. 

Some of the tlioiights expressed by the 
first Snperinteiident of Public Tnstriictioii 
with reference to primary schools (or com- 
mon schools, as they were then called), are 
worthy of reproduction after more than sixty 
years have passed, and the plan then inaugu- 
rated has grown and developed to its present 
proportions, preserving, however, the one 
feature of universality and ecpiality that was 
then urged in its behalf. Quoting from the 
report previously referred to: 

"It has been said, and rightly too, that 
common schools are truly republican. The 
great object is to furnish good instruction in 
all the elementary and common branches of 
knowledge, for all classes of community, as 
good, indeed, for the poorest boy of the State, 
as the rich man can furnish for his children, 
Avith all his wealth. The object is universal 
education — the education of every individual 
of all classes. The great thing that has ren- 
dered the Prussian system so popular and effi- 
cient, which has so strongly attached it to the 
hearts of the people, and made it an essential 
element of the social state, is its truly repub- 
lican character. ^ ^ "^ It is this feature 
of free schools which has nurtured and pre- 
served pure republicanism in our own land. 
In the public schools, all classes are blended 
together — tlie rich mingle with the poor, and 
are educated in company. In these schools 
the ])oor are as likely to excel as the rich, for 
there is no monopoly of talent, of industry, 
or accpiirements. ^ * ^ It is this sys- 
tem which brings forward and elevates to 
places of distinction, a due proportion of that 
class of citizens which the Komans called new 
men — men who owe nothing either to birth 
or fortune, but all to the free schools and 
their own exertions. ^ ^ ^ Let free 
schools be established and maintained in per- 
petuity, and there can be no such thing as a 



permanent aristocracy in our land, for the 
monopoly of wealth is powerless when mind 
is allowed freely to come in contact with 
mind.'' 

The conceptions of the first superinten- 
dent, verging as they did somewhat on the 
enthusiastic, clearly indicate the theory on 
which the public school system has pro- 
ceeded. Whether the system has realized all 
that was expected of it, must be judged by 
results. The term rich, as descriptive of 
worldly possessions, has a meaning quite dif- 
ferent now from what it did fifty years ago. 
The rich of today can send their sons to be 
educated in the most expensive private insti- 
tutions, wliicli the rich of the earlier time 
could not do. The wealth of today can com- 
mand to its service the best brain power of the 
land. How far, therefore, the educational 
system, or any system yet devised, has proved, 
or can prove, a certain security against class 
distinctions, is a problem for the political and 
social economists to solve. 

It is due to (lovernor Mason to refer in 
this connection to his messages to the Legis- 
lature, in which the educational mechanism 
of the young State was commended to the 
careful attention of the law-making powder. 
The necessity for the general diffusion of 
knowledge as the best or only security for 
popular institutions, and the influence of a 
common educational system in preserving and 
perpetuating a sentiment of social equality so 
essential in a democratic State, were dwelt 
upon by Governor Mason in terms equally 
forcible with those of his Superintendent of 
Ihiblic Instruction. 

The initiative of the modern high school in 
the State, it is believed, belongs to Ypsilanti. 
Among the earlier efforts at founding semi- 
naries, one was begun at Ypsilanti under the 
name of the Union Seminary. A building 
of moderate pretensions was built and the 
school ran along in an indifferent way dur- 
ing the 1840 decade, but eventually failed en- 
tirely. The public school authorities of Ypsi- 
lanti then became possessed of the building, 



42 



UE-N OF PROGRESS. 



which was far more pretentious than the av- 
erage school building of the time. The style 
of the structure and the association connected 
with it possibly suggested that the school to 
be established within its walls should be of a 
higher character than the average common 
school had up to that time attained, and an ad- 
vanced course of study was introduced. This 
summary statement is made on the strength of 
the recollection of the writer, who was then a 
I'esident of the neighboring city of Ann Ar- 
bor. There was at the time a considerable 
feeling of rivalry between the two towns, 
Ann Arbor having no school of equal preten- 
sions with that of her neighbor. The Ypsi- 
lanti school had, in fact, quite a wide reputa- 
tion because of its advanced character. It is 
recalled that about the year 1851 or 1852, at 
the annual school meeting in Ypsilanti, the 
sum of $2,500 was voted for an addition to 
the school building. This was commented 
upon in Ann Arbor as a piece of unprece- 
dented extravagance, but as evidencing the en- 
terprise and liberality of their neighbors in the 
matter of education. Early in the 1850 de- 
cade the people of Ann Arbor began to agitate 
the question of what w^as at that time termed 
a ^'union school.'^ 

It should not be inferred that their action 
w-as prompted by a desire to eclipse their 
neighbors, although it may have been stimu- 
lated by a comparison that was unavoidable. 
The impelling thought w^as that in the town 
that was the seat of the State University there 
w^as no intermediate step between that institu- 
tion and the common school, and that one 
ought to be supplied. The result was the erec- 
tion, about the year 1855, of a school build- 
ing, at the cost of some $30,000. It is re- 
called that the first Republican State Conven- 
tion, for the nomination of judges of the Su- 
preme Court, was held in the third story of the 
building, which was designed as the general 
assembly-room or auditorium, before it was 
finished oil', in the spring of 1857. Soon after 
the completion of the Ann Arbor building 
the Ypsilanti edifice was burned, and in re- 
building care was taken that the new structure 
should surpass that of the neighboring city. 



There seenis an especial appropriateness in 
the fact that the high school should have thus 
taken its rise in the neighboring towns, one 
the seat of the University and the other of the 
JS^ormal School. The example was conta- 
gious, and other towns soon followed — an evi- 
dence, it may be presumed, that the time was 
ripe for such a development. The plan of 
"branches,'' as part of a University system, 
had been abandoned long before the time 
in question. The numerous private or cor- 
porate institutes or seminaries had proven 
failures, in most cases, at least. That there 
was a deficiency in the educational system was 
apparant, and the high school came into ex- 
istence to supply the deficiency. That the 
system has the approval of the mass of the 
people is presumed to be above question. And 
}et the fact is recognized that there are those 
w^ho doubt its wisdom. The office of the an- 
nalist is, however, to present facts, and not to 
espouse or combat theories. The growth of 
tlie system was not without objection and legal 
contest. Suit was brought in the earlier years 
of its historj by the late Senator Charles E. 
Stuart to restrain the school authorities of 
Kalamazoo from teaching foreign and the 
classical languages in the schools of that place, 
on the plea that English being the official 
language of the State, money collected by 
taxation could not legally be applied in pay- 
ment for teaching languages other than the 
English. The case was decided by the Su- 
preme Court adversely to Mr. Stuart.^ 

Probably no feature^ of our State policy has 
been subjected to so many changes in the gov- 
erning statutes as has the public school sys- 
tem. In this connection, an extract or two 
from early State papers seems appropriate. 
Governor Barry, in his message to the Legis- 
lature in 1842, said: "Above all others, the 
laws on the subject of common schools should 
be plain, simple and easy to be understood. 
Such, how^ever is not the present condition of 
our legislation on this important subject. The 
enactments are various and are scattered 
through many volumes, and it is with diffi- 



*30 Mich., 69. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



43 



culty that even their meaning can, in all cases, 
be ascertained.'' Franklin Sawyer, Jr., suc- 
ceeded Mr. Pierce as Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction. In his report, as such, in 
1842, he makes this comment: "A law is 
hardly known in many districts before it is 
repealed or amended, and it not unfrequently 
happens that while the original law governs 
the official acts of one portion of a township, 
amendments to it, or even amendments to the 
amendments, regulate the conduct of another 
portion of the same township.'' Reference 
has been made to the first superintendent (Mr. 
Pierce), and to his fitness for the position. No 
less can be said of his successor, Mr. Sawyer. 
He was a ISTew England man, and by profes- 
sion a lawyer, although his tastes inclined 
more to the literary than to the legal field. 
The educational system was fortunate in being 
thus ably represented in the days of its in- 
fancy. 

There have been seventeen Superinten- 
dents of Public Instruction. Under the first 
Constitution they were appointed hj the Gov- 
ernor and Legislature. Since 1851 they have 
been elected, except where appointments were 
made to fill vacancies. Ira Mayhew was 
appointed in 1845, serving until 1849. He 
was subsequently elected for two terms under 
the Republican regime (1854 and 1856), giv 
ing a total service of eight years. John M. 
Gregory served three terms, 1859-65, and 
Ornamel Hosford four terms, 1865-73. Su- 



perintendents, other than those mentioned, 
have been: Oliver C. Comstock, 1843-45; 
Irancis W. Shearman, 1849-54; Daniel B. 
Briggs, 1873-77; Horace S. Tarbell, 1877- 
79; Cornelius A. Gower, 1878-81; Varnum 
B. Cochran, 1881-83; Herschel R. Goss, 
1883-85; Theodore Nelson, 1885-86; Joseph 
Estabrook, 1887-91; Ferris S. Fitch, 1891- 
92; Henry R. Pattengill, 1893-96. Jason E. 
Hammond is the present superintendent, hav- 
ing been first elected in 1896 and re-elected 
in 1898. 

Mere current statistics are of little value in 
a work designed for the future as well as for 
the present. For the purposes of reference 
and investigation they are the more readily 
found in the annual reports. But as showing 
the comparative progress in the matters cov- 
ered by the data below, the annexed figures 



Number of townships in the State reporting 
Number of school districts in the State . . . 

Number of volumes in town libraries 

Number of volumes in district libraries. . . . 

Number of teachers employed 

Total wages of teachers for the year 

Total value of school houses and lots 

Total number school houses 

Number children between 5 and ?0 years . . 

Number attending school 

Average number months at school 

Amount of 2-mill tax* 

Amount of primary school fund 

District taxes for all purposes 

Receipts from all other sources 

Total resources for the year 

Amount paid for building and repairs 

Paid for all other purposes 

Total indebtedness of the districts 



1865. 



713 

4,474 

58,653 

95,577 

8,792 

$ 730,251 

2,355,982 

4,495 

298,607 

228,629 

6.2 

$281,770 

137,354 

478,908 

201,541 

1,237,524 

175 471 

170,600 

221,703 



1,284 

7,157 

158,033 

664,377 

15,673 

$4,146,449 

17,977,447 

7,885 

703,730 

496,025 

7 22 

$650,973 

950,080 

4,524,995 

831,884 

7,867,646 

621,194 

1,387,982 

2,007,874 



*l-mill tax, the amount now provided to be raised for library 
purposes. 



THE TRUST FUNDS. 



Origin of the Tfust Funds— First Loaned to Pri- 
vate and Local Interests — ^Absorbed Into the State 
Treasury— Constitutional Provision— Tabular Ex- 
hibits—Are the Trust Funds a Debt? 

The messages of the Governors of the State 
■usually contain a reference to the "trnst 
funds." The reports of the State Treasurer 
and the Auditor-General exhibit the state of 
the accounts current between the State and 
the trust funds. The trust funds have ac- 
crued from the sales of lands granted to the 



State for educational purposes. Eeference is 
made to the land grants and the conditions 
attached to them under the heads respectively 
of "Educational" and "Government Land 
Grants." In accepting the grants under the 
conditions attached, the State became a party 
to a contract. The covenant on the part of 
the State was that the income from the grants 
should be devoted in good faith to the several 
purposes for which the grants were made. 
The State thus became a trustee, but neces- 



44 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



sarily wiih a wide discretion as to the manner 
in which the trBst should be administered. 
The plan of leasing the lands and relying 
upon the rental as income, which was at first 
proposed, was soon abandoned. The next 
most feasible plan was to sell the lands and 
invest the proceeds, applying the interest to 
the purpose for which the grant was made. 
This plan was adopted in 1837, and the sale 
of the lands placed in charge of the Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction. The proceeds 
were to be loaned to supposed responsible par- 
ties upon adequate security, and in some in- 
stances loans wer^ made to counties. But or- 
dinary business sagacity soon discovered what 
it should have seen beforehand, that this was 
a very cumbrous, uncertain and unsafe way 
of administering a great trust, and one open- 
ing a vast field for fraud and jobbery. 
Whether any of these results followed the 
experiment, is immaterial. In 1844 the plan 
was abandoned.^ The sale of the lands was 
placed in the hands of the Commissioner of 
the Land Office, and the proceeds turned into 
the State treasury. The proceeds from the 
sales constituted an accumulating fund, on 
which the State agreed to pay, and has ever 
since continued to pay, interest at the rate of 
seven per cent, per annum. Two objects 
were thus secured: The State treasury was 
replenished by so much, and the people to 
that extent relieved from taxation in their 
then impoverished condition, and the fund 
was relieved from the uncertainty and inse- 
curity of being loaned in small sums to Tom, 
Dick and Harry. The lands were sold, and 
are being sold, on part payments, the sums 
paid going into the treasury and being cred- 
ited up to the proper fund, thus adding to 
the principal indebtedness on which annual 
interest is paid, while the interest on the un- 
paid portion is credited up to the interest 
fundy which is drawn upon in behalf of the 
beneficiary and a balance struck each year. 
There are thus two accounts kept, as, for ex- 
ample, with the primary school fund. The 
primary school fund proper never suffers any 
diminution, but is steadily being added to, 



as the lands are' sold. The primary school 
interest fund is made up from interest on 
the principal sum, from interest received on 
account of part paid lands, and from specific 
taxes, and is apportioned semi-annually to 
the counties, and through the counties to the 
townships and school districts, according to 
their population of school age. 

Section 1, article 14, of the Constitution, 
provides: "All specific State taxes, except 
those received from the mining companies of 
the Upper Peninsula, shall be applied in 
paying the interest upon the primary school. 
University and other educational funds, and 
the interest and principal of the State debt, 
in the order herein recited, until the extin- 
guishment of the State debt, other than the 
amounts due to educational funds, when such 
specific taxes shall be added to, and consti- 
tute a part of the primary school interest 
fund.'' A table in the Auditor-GeneraFs 
report for 1898, page 100, shows the amount 
of specific taxes received during the fiscal year 
ending June 80, 1898, to have been $1,028,- 
832.40. This sum Avas apportioned as fol- 
lows : 



Interest on Normal School Fund 

Interest on Agricultural College fund 

Interest on University fund 

Interest on Primary School fund 

Surplus to credit of Primary School interest fund 



$ 3,957 5y 
41,234 84 
37,139 45 
309,518 52 



$ 391,849 90 
636,982 50 



$ 1,028,832 40 



It thus appears that the receipts from spe- 
cific taxes pay the entire interest on the sev- 
eral trust funds, and also leave a munificent 
surplus to the credit of the primary school in- 
terest fund. This surplus ($636,982.50), to- 
gether with $309,518.52 to the credit of the 
fund as interest, gives a total dividend to the 
primary schools of the State $946,501.02 for 
the year, equaling in the year 1897 $1.44 per 
capita of the children of school age. The ap- 
portionment is made semi-annually, in May 
and JSTovember. 

In the following exhibit the first column 
shows the total amount paid from the State 
treasury as interest on the several trust funds 
since the organization of the system up to 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



45 



June 30, 1898, and the second column shows 
the receipts by the several funds from interest 
on part paid lands: 



Primary School fund 

University fund 

Normal School fund 

Agricultural College fund 



Interest 
Trust Funds 



$17,506,115 54 

1,347,185 85 

125,116 07 

541,461 28 



Int. pt. pd. 
Lands. 

$2,075,982 90 

512,771 57 

67,537 36 

231,724 77 



The amounts to the credit of the several 
funds on which interest is payable at the close 
of the fiscal vear, June 80, 1898, was: 



Primary School, 7 per cent 

Primary School, 6 per cent 

University, 7 per cent . 

Agricultural College, 7 per cent. 
Normal School, 7 per cent 



$3,859,738 52 

833,612 96 

532,556 81 

625.790 98 

66,125 12 



$5,917,824 39 



There will be no substantial increase in the 
University fund, as only forty acres of the 
lands remain unsold, as sho^vn elsewhere, and 
the same is relatively true of the Normal 
School fund. The other funds, however, will 
be considerably increased by further sales. 

The question has been raised, are the trust 
funds a debt? This may be answered both 



ways. If the funds had been loaned out as 
was first proposed, there would certainly be a 
debt due from the borrowers to somebody. 
Eut the State used the money, and does it 
owe somebody for it? As regards the State- 
supported institutions, the question answers 
itself, because if there were no revenue from 
an endowment fund, it is presumed that the 
State w^ould increase its appropriations to an 
extent to equal the sums-total required. But 
with the primary school fund it is different. 
If thei districts received no dividend from the 
State, they migiit or might not add to the 
local tax voted by them for the support of 
their schools eacli year the $1.44 per capita 
now received by them from the State. So it 
seems clear that this fund is a debt due from 
the St^te to the districts in an amount at least 
ecjual to an equitable annual interest on say 
$4,000,000, more or less. On the other hand, 
it may be held that the whole matter is 
merged by the (^Constitutional provision. But 
the Constitution may be changed, and yet the 
obligation would remain. 



KELIGIOUS TEACHINC) IN STATE SCHOOLS. 



Early Sentiment on the Subject— The Historical 
Ordinance— Condition of an Early Land Purchase 
—As Related to the Primary Schools— As Related 
to the University— Views of President Angell, 
Professor Frieze and President Tappan— The 
Select Bible Readings. 

In view^ of an agitation comparatively re- 
cent, growing out of the introduction into the 
public schools of Detroit of a text book known 
as the "Select Bible Eeadings,'' and the deci- 
sion of the Supreme Court in a case brought 
thereon, an historical reference to the subject 
of religious teaching in the State schools will 
be read with interest. In the early schools of 
the country- the teaching of religion was an 
essential function. It may be said, in fact, 
to have been the primary object. In Great 
Britain, from which our earlier population 
and manners and customs sprang, the church 
and the state were one. As the State was , 
founded upon religion, as represented by an 



established or state church, the support of re- 
ligion became of the first importance, as giv- 
ing strengtli to tlie state. While, in our gov- 
ernmental structures, there was a formal di- 
vorcement of church and state, the thought 
and belief of the dependence of the one upon 
the other remained. Hence religious teach- 
ing in the schools was either ordained by the 
early statutes or established by custom. 

The same sentiment, unquestionably, in- 
spired the ambiguous language of the ordi- 
nance of 1Y87, which declares that "Religion, 
morality and knowledge, being necessary to 
good government and the happiness of man- 
kind, schools and the means of education 
shall forever be encouraged." This has been 
construed by some as pledging the States 
formed from the IsTorthwest Territory to the 
encouragement of some form of religious 
worship or belief, by means of teaching 
through State-established schools; or if not 



46 



ME^^ OF PEOGRESS. 



some one form, then of all forms — the latter, 
of course, not presumable. This claim, how- 
ever, seems inconsistent with a prior declara- 
tion of the same ordinance. After prescrib- 
ing the method of civil administration in the 
ceded territory, the ordinance lays down cer- 
tain ^^fundamental principles," of what may 
be termed civil ethics, beginning as follows: 
"And for extending the fundamental princi- 
ples of civil and religious liberty, which form 
the basis whereon these republics, their laws, 
and constitutions, are erected," etc., "the fol- 
loAving articles shall be considered as articles 
of compact between the original States, and 
the people and the States in the said terri- 
tory." Religious liberty could not well be 
maintained under a State where some form 
of religion was established, or encouraged, to 
the disfavoring of other forms. Possibly a 
compromise construction may be reached by 
interpreting the ordinance to mean that in a 
State in which knowledge is disseminated by 
means of schools, the people, in the broadest 
exercise of their "religous liberty," will be 
naturally led to embrace that form of religion 
most conducive to "good government." The 
preceding was written before the opinion of 
Judge Carpenter (referred to later on) was 
rendered, or had come under the eye of the 
writer. In this opinion the same view is 
expressed in the following language: "It is 
an expression of the faith that I was taught 
as a child, and that I, in common with many 
others, still hold, that, as you increase the effi- 
ciency of schools and other means of educa- 
tion, religion, morality and knowledge will 
prosper." 

In the year 1787 a purchase of a million 
and a half acres of land, including what is 
now the city of Cincinnati, was made (or at 
least negotiated for), by Judge John Cleves 
Symmes, of New Jersey, on behalf of a com- 
pany. It was stipulated that the tract should 
be surveyed under the government system, 
and that section 16 of each township should 
be set apart for educational, and section 29 
for religious, purposes. This would seem to 
have been a stipulation in behalf of a com- 



pany, rather than a covenant which the gov- 
ernment would have interested itself in en- 
forcing. It was most likely an enterprise on 
the part of some religious society. 

One of the topics on which information 
was asked for from school districts, by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, in 
1841, was "the religious instruction" im- 
parted in the schools, and the answers were 
summarized by the words "that sectarianism 
was not taught, while a certain amount of 
religious instruction was encouraged." The 
first Superintendent of Public Instruction, in 
outlining the plan of the University, says: 
"It is not to be expected that the study of 
theology, as a profession, can ever be made 
a separate department of the University. 
There is no connection, and it is devoutly to 
be hoped there never will be, between church 
and state, under our government. We have, 
therefore, no establishment, and consequently 
no ministry to provide for it. But "^ ^ ^ 
the basis on which Christianity has reared its 
stupendous fabric, and founds its claims to 
the confidence and affection of the world, 
would be fruitful topics for the predilections 
of such a professorship as is proposed to be 
established. Besides, it will be found to be 
essential to the prosperity of the University. 
Without something cf the kind it would be 
abandoned by all religious denominations." 

The religious character of the University 
(having reference more specifically to the sys- 
tem of religion represented by the Christian 
cult), has been dwelt upon and emphasized 
by chairs in the University, notably by Presi- 
dent Angell, in his inaugural address. It may 
be said to have been authoritatively stated by 
Prof. Frieze, who was designated to give the 
leading address at the University semi-cen- 
tennial, June 26-30, 1887, his theme being 
"The University in Its Relation to Religion." 
The following extract from the address is 
given : 

"In its future it (the University) must be 
expected to maintain the same position as 
heretofore. Until Michigan shall cease to be 
a Christian State, its University cannot cease 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



47 



to be a Christian school of learning, for it is 
governed and controlled by the people 
throngii regents of their own choosing; and. 
therefore, its teachers must in general repre- 
sent the religious opinions of the people as a 
whole. But to believe that Christianity is 
ever to lose its grounds in the State is to 
throw lip onr faith in its Divine Author. On 
the contrary, His w^ord cannot fail; His good 
work must go on and prosper; the people 
must become more and more imbued with His 
spirit, and make that spirit to be more and 
more manifest in the character and w^orking 
of their institutions. And we have in this a 
sure promise that the University mil never 
cease in the future to maintain that reason- 
able and strong position, as a Christian insti- 
tution, of a Christian commonwealth, which, 
as a historical fact, it has held throughout the 
half century this day completed." 

Dr. Tappan, the first president of the Uni- 
versity, in an address before the Christian 
Library Association, June 22, 1 858, used lan- 
guage strongly implying that no system of 
religion should be taught or represented, as 
by authority, in a State institution. A few 
of his sentences are appended: 

"But egregiously do those mistake the char- 
acter and ends of this institution who imagine 
that because it belongs to no sect or party in 
particular, it therefore belongs to all sects 
and parties conjointly, and of equal right. It 
not only does not belong to any sect or party 
in particular; it belongs to no sect or party at 
all. It is a purely literary and scientific in- 
stitution; it is in no sense ecclesiastical. It 
is designed for a single purpose — advancing 
knowledge and promoting education. The 
State is not composed of religious sects, but 
of the people. And the institutions of the 
State do not belong to the sects into which 
the people may chance to be divided by their 
opinions and practices, but to the people con- 
sidered as the body politic, irrespective of all 
such divisions. The right of prescription, in- 
terference, or of any control conceded to one 
religious body, would involve a concession of 
the same to all similar bodies. What is con- 



ceded to the Protestants, the Catholics may 
equally claim. What is conceded to Metho- 
dists or Presbyterians, all other Protestant 
sects may equally claim. aSslj, what is con- 
ceded to religious sects must be conceded also 
to those who belong to no sect. The only 
practical alternative is that of committing an 
institution of learning to one sect, or to none 
at all. State institutions, of course, are com- 
mitted to none at all." 

A liberal view would certainly not object 
to the teaching in the State schools of the 
history and tenets of all religions, as matter of 
information, without teaching any one of 
them ex-cathedra, leaving it to the intelligent 
student to determine in his own mind which 
is the right one or the preferable one. 
A study of this character, however, would 
not be adapted to the primary schools, and it 
is here that the greatest friction has arisen. 
The Eoman Catholics, more especially, have 
claimed that religious instruction should be 
concurrent wdth that of a secular character. 
The same view is held by many of the Pro- 
testants, but in view of the difficulty of intro- 
ducing any religious teaching without offend- 
ing persons of some one or more sects or of 
no sect, there has been a general concurrence 
in the propriety of omitting religious instruc- 
tion from the public schools. 

A case involving the right of the Board of 
Education of Detroit to introduce the so-called 
^'Select Bible Readings" into the schools of 
that city was decided by the Supreme Court of 
the State, December 6, 1898, (Pfeiffer vs. 
Board of Education of Detroit). This case was 
before the court for many months before a de- 
cision w^as handed down, shomng the extreme 
care exercised by the judges before reaching 
a decision. The contention of the relator, 
Pfeiffer, was that the Select Bible Readings, 
being a religious book and intended for reli- 
gious instruction, their use in the schools was 
violative of sections 39, 40 and 41, article 4, 
of the State Constitution, as follows: 

Sec. 39. The Legislature shall pass no law to 
prevent any person from worshipping Almighty 
Grod according to the dictates of his own conscience, 



48 



MEIsf or PEOGEESS. 



or compel any person to attend, erect or support 
any place of religious worship, or to pay tithes, 
taxes or other rates for the support of any minister 
of the gospel or teacher of religion. 

Sec. 40. No money shall be appropriated or 
drawn from the treasury for the benefit of any 
religious sect or society, theological or religious 
seminary, nor shall property belonging to the State 
be appropriated for any such purpose. 

Sec. 41. The Legislature shall not diminish or 
enlarge the civil or political rights, privileges and 
capacities of any person on account of his opinion 
or belief concerning matters of religion. 

It was contended by the Board of Educa- 
tion, in its answer, that the book was not in- 
troduced into the schools as a book of reli- 
gious instruction, but as a reading exercise, 
valuable for its moral precepts. Its use was 
defended on this ground, and this was the 
ground on which the right of the school 
authorities to place it as a text book in the 
schools was affirmed. 

The case w^as first brought in the Wavne 
Circuit Court, and Judge Carpenter, of that 
Court, in a A^ery elaborate opinion, decided in 
favor of the relator, Pfeiffer, and against the 
use of the book in the schools. His decision 
was reversed by the Supreme Court on writ 
of error, four of the judges — ^Montgomery, 
Grant, Hooker and Long — concurring. Judge 
Moore filing a dissenting opinion. The spirit 
of the decision in the case is fairly repre- 
sented by the following extract from the 
opinion handed doA\Ti by the four judges: 

"No interference, by way of instruction, with the 
views of the scholars, whether derived from paren- 
tal or sacredotal authority, is shown. The Bible 
was used merely as a book in which instruction 
in reading was given. But reading the Bible is 
no more an interference with religious belief than 
would reading the mythology of Greece or Rome 
be regarded as interfering with religious belief or 
affirming the pagan creeds. A chapter in the Koran 
might be read, yet it would not be an affirmation 



of the truth of Mohammedanism, or an interference 
with religious faith. The Bible was used merely 
as a reading book, and for the information con- 
tained in it, as the Koran might be, and not for 
religious instruction. If suitable for that, it was 
suitable for the purpose for which it was selected." 

Virtually, therefore, the opinion would 
deny the right of the school authorities to 
prescribe any form of religious teaching for 
the schools. 

In his dissenting opinion Judge Moore 
quotes the opinion in full of Judge Carpen- 
ter, in the lower court, from which the fol- 
lowing extract is taken : 

"It is no answer to the charge that the contem- 
plated use of 'Readings from the Bible' is teaching 
religion, to say that the book also teaches morality. 
What religious book could not be taught in the 
schools, if the morality of its doctrines were to 
determine its use? Teaching religion at the expense 
of the taxpayers is forbidden by the constitution, 
and teaching morality is not commanded by it. 
Nor is it possible to take a middle ground, and 
insist that the religion of the Bible can be taught 
in the schools, and other religious teachings 
excluded. It is impossible to frame an argument 
which, under our constitution, will permit respon- 
dent to carry out its proposed action, which will 
not permit it to teach any religion it may choose 
to teach. The constitution prohibits all religious 
teachings in the public schools, or it prohibits 
none." 

Judicial decisions are supposed to be 
reached upon the law as it is found to exist, 
independently of popular opinion. But an 
advancing tendency in popular opinion, run- 
ning through decades, comes to be recognized 
by the courts, and assumes the form of law. 
Had the same issue been tried fifty years ago, 
as in the case cited, it is a safe assumption that 
it would have been decided much more 
I)romptly and with an added emphasis. The 
history is of value, as showing the evolution 
of thought on the special line indicted. 



MATERIAL INTERESTS. 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS BY THE STATE. 



Fanciful Schemes of the Earlier Days — Prophetic 
of What is Now Seen — Work Projected — The Five 
Million Loan — Views of Governor Barry — Sale of 
the Railroads — Abandonment of the System. 

Under the territorial government a number 
of companies were chartered for building 
railways and for improving the interior water- 
Avavs, although but little progress was made 
in construction. At the time of the organi- 
zation of the State government immigration 
was at high tide. Everybody Avas wealthy in 
imagination. Visions of a magnificent future 
filled the public eye. And if a thought verg- 
ing on the fanciful may be pardoned, it is 
that our visions are real while they exist. 
Castles in the air are real castles until they 
are blown away. So our predecessors in the 
thirties had visions and built air castles. 

When the constitution of 1835 provided 
that internal improvements should be encour- 
aged, the popular pulse-beat responded to it. 
Many schemes of internal improvement were 
undertaken, only to prove failures. But 
while the castles of those days may have been 
ethereal as to their then permanence, they 
were prophetic of what should come after. 
The improvements of the present day far ex- 
ceed in extent and surpass in excellence the 
most fanciful dreams of the enthusiasts of the 
earlier days. Though these improvements 
have not been made directly by the State, 
they have been made by private enterprise 
fostered by the State. They have been made 
possible and have been made indispensable by 
the growth in population and wealth — fac- 
tors, by the way, which the improvements 
themselves have been potent agents in devel- 
oping. Let those who will, strike the balance 
between cause and effect. In passing, also, it 
may be noted that while the State entered 
upon an extended policy of public works in 



its infancy, only to abandon it later, there is 
now a rising demand for public ownership of 
public Avorks, especially by municipalities, 
but not stopping short of the general govern- 
ment in its I'elation to the great transportation 
agencies. 

In 1837 the State, pursuant to authority of 
the Legislature, entered upon an extended 
system of internal improvement, including 
three trunk railway lines — the Southern, the 
Central, and the ISTorthern, the latter between 
Port Huron and Grand Rapids — and the 
Clinton and Kalamazoo canal, from Mt. 
Clemens westward to Lake Michigan. For 
carrying out these gigantic enterprises, Avhose 
cost at this day would exceed the hundred mil- 
lion mark, a loan of $5,000,000 was nego- 
tiated on the credit of the State. The full 
amount of the loan was, hoAvever, never real- 
ized by the State, a portion of the bonds hav- 
ing been negotiated with the Morris Canal & 
Banking Company, of Ncav Jersey, and Avith 
the TTnited States Bank, both of which be- 
came insolvent. The final settlement became 
a matter of compromise between the State and 
the holders of the bonds. It Avas a matter of 
history at the time also that $20,000 of the 
money received on account of the loan mys- 
teriously disappeared on its way from New 
York to Detroit in the custody of the Michi- 
gan agents. Of the public improvements pro- 
jected. Gov. Barry, in his message to the Leg- 
islature in 1842 said: "Our Avhole system of 
internal improvement, it Avill be seen, em- 
braced about five hundred and ninety-six 
miles of railroad, about two hundred and 
fifty-three miles of canal, and the improve- 
ment of five rivers. The estimated cost of 
these improA^ements is $10,489,275.76, 
though probably their real cost, were they 
completed, aa^ouH not be less than $15,000,- 



50 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



000." The Governor's estimate of the cost 
illustrates the want of knowledge at the time 
as to the cost of works of the character in 
question, while the nicety with which the 
probable cost of so comprehensive a system is 
figured do^Nvn to centals in the first estimates 
is not a little amnsing. The entire system of 
internal improvements was placed under a 
board of seven commissioners. 

Some further comments of Gov. Barry in 
the message already quoted from are worthy 
of reproduction. Speaking of the scheme as 
a whole, he says: "The conception of the 
plan on a scale so magnificent, is to be at- 
tributed to the erroneous opinions of the 
wealth produced by a too redundant paper 
currency. The system was altogether too ex- 
tended for our wants, and required expendi- 
tures beyond our means. It was projected at 
a time when things were too often viewed 
through a magnifying glass. Individuals 
embarked with confidence in enterprises 
which they now regard as extravagant and 
visionary. The spirit of the times unfor- 
tunately became the governing policy of the 
States, and Michigan projected a system of 
internal improvements which would have 
been a grand undertaking for the oldest and 



most wealthy States. This general delusion 
has noAV passed away. Men have returned 
to sober senses and rely on the realities of 
life." ' 

Gov. Barry recommended the abandon- 
ment of the system as a whole, while hus- 
banding those works already completed, or 
nearly so. There was a growing sentiment, 
however, that the State should wash its hands 
of the whole business, and this sentiment cul- 
minated in 1846 in the sale of both the Cen- 
tral and Southern railroads. The former 
had been completed as far as Kalamazoo 
and the latter as far as Hillsdale. The pur- 
chase price of the Central was $2,000,000, 
and of the Southern $500,000, but it was 

paid by retiring so much of the $5,000,000 
loan bonds. ISTo work other than some grad- 
ing and grubbing had been done on the north- 
ern route (Port Huron and Grand Rapids). 
Some work had been done on the Clinton and 
Kalamazoo canal, extending as far as Roch- 
ester in Oakland County, at an expense of 
$56,754.68, and various small sums had been 
expended for other improvements up to 1842. 
But with the sale of the two railroads the 
State cut loose from all work of the kind. 



BANKING AND CURRENCY. 



First Effort at Banking— Chartered Banks— General 
Banking Law of 1837, or "Wild Cat" Banks— Col- 
lapse of the System — Scarcity of Bank Currency 
— Canadian, Indiana and Illinois Notes — General 
Banking Law of 1857— State Banks of Issue 
Superseded by National Currency — Shinplasters 
and State Scrip — Savings Banks, State Banks and 
National Banks — Tabular Exhibits. 

The first effort at banking in Michigan 
was under the auspices of Gov. Hull and 
Judge Woodward, who in 1806 established a 
bank in Detroit, of whose operations fabulous 
tales were old. The institution had no legal 
existence, and closed out at the end of two 
years. The Bank of Michigan was chartered 
by the Legislative Council in 1817, and did 
a prosperous business for twenty-four years, 
when it went under in the general financial 



collapse of the time. The Farmers' and Mer- 
chants' Bank (1830), and the Michigan State 
Bank (1835), both of Detroit, both suffered 
the fate of their predecessor about the same 
time and from the same causes. The Michi- 
gan Insurance Company (bank) was char- 
tered in 1834 and continued doing business 
until it was superseded by the national bank- 
ing system. Aside from the Detroit banks 
mentioned, a dozen or more had been char- 
tered and were doing business at interior 
points. In 1837 the speculative fever ran so 
high that the Legislature was overwhelmed 
with applications for bank charters, and in 
lieu of special charters the general banking 
law was passed, under which the brood of 
"wild cat" banks, so well remembered by the 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



51 



few now living who were then residents of 
the State, came into existence. Within a 
year and a half from sixty to seventy banks 
had been organized in the State. The col- 
lapse of the system was as sudden as its rise, 
carrying with it most of the chartered banks 
also. At the close of the year 1839 four 
chartered banks and four under the general 
law remained, and three years later the Mich- 
igan Insurance Company was the only asso- 
ciation doing a banking business in the State. "^ 

For a period of over twenty years the 
banking facilities of the State, so far as banks 
of issue were concerned, were mainly confined 
to a couple of banks in Detroit. In the early 
fifties a bank known as the Government Stock 
Bank was doing business at Ann Arbor, 
though under what charter right is not re- 
called. It was of a speculative character, and 
was not held in favor by the Metropolitan 
Bank, of New York, by which its notes were 
gathered up and presented for redemption be- 
fore they became crumpled. This pressure 
forced it out of business. Several banks in 
the interior were revived and transacted busi- 
ness imder old charters. 

The present constitution, adopted in 1850, 
forbade special charters, and provided that 
any general banking law should be sub- 
mitted to a vote of the people. The Legisla- 
ture in 1857 passed a general banking act, 
which was approved by popular vote at the 
IsTovember election in 1858. Its provisions 
were such, however, that no banks were es- 
tablished under it so far as knoAvn. The busi- 
ness interests of the State had increased to 
an extent that the absence of banks of issue 
at which accommodation loans might be had 
was seriously felt, as was the scarcity of cur- 
rency for ordinary business exchanges. In 
the eastern j)art of the State, Canadian bank 
notes were largely in circulation, and were 



♦T. H. Hinchman's "Banks and Banking in 
Michigan." In the report of the State Treasurer 
for 1853 five banks are mentioned: The Bank of 
Macomb County, at Mt. Clemens; the Government 
Stock Bank, at Ann Arbor, and the Michigan State 
Bank, the FarmersVand Mechanics' Bank and the 

Peninsular Bank, at Detroit. 



valued for their supposed security and gold 
equivalent. Indiana bank notes were also in 
evidence. In western Michigan, Illinois cur- 
rency was the more plentiful, but it was re- 
garded ^vith suspicion, and was sometimes 
characterized by the unpoetic term of ^^stump 
tail." The embarrassment had become so 
great and the need for relief so pressing, that 
the Legislature of 1861 proposed an amend- 
ment to the constitution providing that the 
Legislature, by a two-tliirds vote of each 
house, might establish a single bank, with 
branches. The amendment was adopted at 
the ensuing IvTovember election, and became 
part of the constitution. The system contem- 
plated w^as similar to that on which the In- 
diana banks were organized. The establish- 
ment of the national banking system, how- 
ever, made action under the amendatory 
clause impracticable, as all State banks of 
issue were soon merged into national banks. 
Private banks or banking offices for the pur- 
pose of discount and exchange had sprung up 
in many places where there was a demand for 
them during the dearth of other banking 
facilities. 

During the wild cat period there was a 
suspension of specie payments by the banks, 
and silver coin for small change was unob- 
tainable. To supply the need, private firms, 
and in some cases municipalities, issued frac- 
tional currency known as "shinplasters," an 
experience that was practically repeated in 
the first years of the war of the rebellion, be- 
fore the issue of the fractional currency by 
the general government. In 1841 an issue of 
State scrip was authorized, of which over 
$200,000 was put in circulation. The notes 
were paid out for all purposes required by the 
needs of the State government. 'No direct 
provision was made for their redemption, but 
they were made receivable for taxes. The 
financial credit of the State was at a low 
mark, and the notes were looked upon with 
distrust. They could be converted into coin 
only at a considerable discount, and were in 
many cases declined in matters of ordinary 
traffic except at a discount. Those who had 



52 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 



and three in 1898. The apparently large 
commercial deposits in 1890, 1895 and 1898, 
are swelled by deposit certificates, $6,000,000 
to $8,000,000 in each case. 

Comparative figures for the years given are 
as follows, omitting the centals : 



taxes to pay, paid them in State scrip. Tf 
they did not have the notes, they bought 
them np at a shave from those who had them. 
The consequence was that in a year or two 
the scrip had substantially all been returned 
to the State in the way of taxes, and the 
State was without available means with which 
to meet its ordinary obligations. 

Savings banks, at least in Michigan, are an 
essentially modern institution. The first law 
under which savings banks were organized 
was passed in 1869. The act was revised in 
1889 so as to include discount and deposit 
banks for commercial purposes, as well as The first National Bank Act went into 



Year. 


Banks. 


No. of 
Bks. 


Capital. 

$ 1,184,897 

681,800 

1,337,825 

805,660 

874,750 

1,160,000 

8,460,835 

12,518,117 

12,262,100 


Com. 
Deposits. 


Savings 
Deposits. 


1873 


State banks 


13 

10 
15 
11 
13 
15 
108 
173 
187 


$2,266,477 




1878 


Savings banks 

State banks 

Savings banks 

State banks 

Savings banks 

State banks 


$4,102,401 


1875 

1875 


2,890,514 


4 828,968 


1880 


2,533,833 
114,926 
15,355,117 
24,927,315 
24 522,326 




1880 
1890 


8.236,094 
27,779,136 
41,192 483 
62,659,912 


1895 


State banks 


1899 


State banks 



savings deposits. These banks are under the 
supervision of a bank commissioner, having 
his office at Lansing, who is required to make 
an examination of the affairs of every bank 
organized, at least once each year, similar to 
the examination of national banks required 
by the general government. Below is given 
some comparative statistics of State and sav- 
ings banks, beginning with the year 1873, the 
reports up to that time being meagre and of 
little value. Up to and including 1888 the 
reports of ^^State banks" and "savings banks" 
are made separately. Beginning with 1889 
all are i^eported as "State banks," but the de- 
posits are classified as "commercial" and "sav- 
ings." Trust -companies are included in tlie 
number of banks — two in 1890, four in 1895, 



operation in February, 1863. But one bank 
was organized in Michigan and found a place 
in the report for that year. The progress of 
the national banking interest in the State is 
shown by the leading items in their transac- 
tions for the years given in the table below. 
The figures are given in thousands, thus — 
$32. for $32,000; $38,463. for $38,463,000: 



Year. 


No. of 
Banks. 




1 
ft 


a 


a 










fo 


88 

o 


i^ 


^Q 


^Q 






^ 


m 


t) 


o 


1— 1 


1863 


1 


$ 32 


$ 75 




$ 1 




$ 52 


1865 


35 


3 681 


4,148 


$160 


241 


$3,765 


4,370 


1870 


41 


9,655 


5,585 


1,520 


502 


3,897 


6,282 


1875 


81 


19,101 


10,447 


2,815 


1.282 


6,615 


11,381 


1880 


79 


19,938 


9,335 


2,591 


1,358 


6,108 


18.205 


1885 


102 


29,979 


13,095 


2.194 


1,319 


3,851 


25,889 


1890 


410 


48 856 


15,515 


3,356 


2,268 


2,732 


38,659 


1895 


94 


46,146 


18,434 


3,026 


1,628 


4,191 


37,570 


1899 


80 


45.504 


11,530 


3,153 


1,303 


4,142 


50,765 



RAILKOADS. 



First Railway in New York — Western New York 
Immigrants and Nomenclateur — First Railway 
Oliarter in Michigan — '^Success to the Railroad" — 
The Trunk Lines — Sale of the Roads by the State 
— Wonderful Development of the Railway System 
— Methods in Early Construction — ^Land Grants in 
Aid of Railways — Local Aid to Railways — Rail- 
way Statistics. 

The history of railroads in Michigan is 
coeval almost mth the history of like enter- 
prises in other parts of the country. The first 
railroad bnilt in the State of New York (the 
Albany and Schenectady), was pnt in opera- 
tion abont the beginning of the 1830 decade. 



A large influx of population was then just be- 
ginning to pour into Michigan, mainly from 
Western ^N'eAV York. The local nomenclature 
of Oakland and Macomb Counties tells very 
clearly where much of the immigration to 
those sections came from. Eochester, Au- 
bnrn, Avon, Troy, Utica, etc., at once sug- 
gest that tlie people w^ho bestowed those 
names upon given localities came from the 
vicinity of places bearing like names else- 
where. These imndgrants came, bearing 
with them the impulses that acuated the peo- 
ple of the regions from whence they came. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



53 



It requires no stretch of the imagination to 
connect the active thought of those people 
with a new enterprise then freshly inaugurat- 
ed, namely, the railway first mentioned. What 
the peopk^ of the Empire State had, the peo- 
ple who came from thence might have and 
ought to have; why not? They had brought 
with them the intelligence of the East. They 
had brought with them the spirit of the towns 
they had left — at least they had brought their 
names, and hoped in time to build the towns 
that should equal or surpass their patro- 
nymics. I'hey had brought with them the 
enterprise of the East. Why should they not 
also bring its ncAvest achievement, the rail- 
road? That they desired and sought to do 
so may be read in the fact of the incorpora- 
tion, in 1830, of the 'Tontiac & Detroit 
Railroad Company,'' by the Legislative Coun- 
cil of tlie j'erritory of Michigan. 'No prog- 
ress was made under the first organization, 
and in 1834 the corporation was succeeded by 
the Detroit & Pontiac Company, with author- 
ity to build a branch to Rochester. A track 
was extended toward, and perhaps reached 
the latter place, leaving the main line a little 
east of Royal Oak. There was some traffic 
by means of horse cars on the branch, but it 
was never honored by a locomotive, and fell 
into disuse and final abandonment. Among 
the incidents of the early railroad enthusiasm, 
the writer recalls having seen, when a small 
boy, a glass half -pint flask, with the inscrip- 
tion, "Success to the railroad.'' The use to 
which the flask was designed was unmistak- 
able, and it may be supposed that every one 
who took a drink from it voiced (without the 
trouble of expressing) the sentiment. It 
might be reasonably supposed that with the 
moral leverage of so many persons drinking 
''Success to the railroad," it should have been 
a success, but it did not prove such to the 
fullest extent. It was opened to Royal Oak 
in the summer of 1838 and a year later to 
Birmingham, where it made a long halt, not 
reaching Pontiac until 1843. The subse- 
quent history of this road merges it with the 
great railway systems of the country. The 



Oakland & Ottawa Railroad Company was 
chartered to build a road from Pontiac to 
Lake Michigan, and the two were eventually 
merged as the Detroit & Mihvaukee, subse- 
quently being reorganized as the Detroit, 
Grand Haven & Milwaukee. Its manage- 
ment fell into the hands of British capitalists 
who furnished the necessary means for its 
building and equipment, and it now forms a 
part of the Grand Trunk railyway system. 

The next railway enterprise born in the 
State was the Detroit and St. Joseph, pro- 
jecting a line from Detroit to the mouth of 
the St. Joseph River on Lake Michigan, a 
company for the purpose having been char- 
tered in 1832. Some work in the way of 
surveys and grading was done as far as Ypsi- 
lanti, and possibly some track may have been 
laid on the eastern end, when the properties 
passed into the hands of the State under the 
internal improvement Act of 1837, the State 
paying the company for the work already 
done, the enterprise thereupon becoming the 
initial section of the Michigan Central line. 
A brief sketch of the progress of the road un- 
der State auspices is given under the head of 
'Tnternal Improvements." Its history since 
passing into the hands of the company is the 
history of the progi'ess and development of 
Central and Western Michigan and of the 
Northwest. As a State work it could not be 
carried beyond the limits of the State, and its 
western terminus was to have been either St. 
Joseph or New Buffalo, whence further prog- 
ress for those westward bound must have been 
by boat across Lake Michigan or by such land 
transportation as they might find. But in the 
hands of a company no limit could be put to 
the extent of the line or its connections. It 
was urged by those wdio were negotiating for 
the purchase of the line from the State that 
it was designed to form part of a western sys- 
tem especially in Illinois. Northern Illinois 
was then but sparsely settled, and railway en- 
terprises there were of doubtful utility so far 
as immediate returns might be concerned. It 
was argued that Avhile the Michigan section 
might be remunerative, its returns would be 



54 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



expected to help make good deficiencies which 
were looked for for a time from lines farther 
west. As the Central passed into the hands 
of the company chartered for the purpose, the 
work of construction westward was pushed 
with all possible energy. Its objective point 
was Chicago. In this it had a competitor in 
the Southern, both roads reaching the Gar- 
den City about the same time in 1852. 

The Southern road had its initiative as the 
Erie & Kalamazoo railroad, a charter for 
which was granted by the Legislative Council 
in 1833. The project was, however, absorbed 
by the State in its general plan of internal 
improvements, the work under the State aus- 
pices taking the name of the Michigan South- 
ern. In its corporate character it was known 
as the Michigan Southern & Northern In- 
diana, and through its eastern connection it is 
known as the Lake Shore & Michigan South- 
ern. 

Previous to the opening of railway com- 
munication with the east, Michigan was 
effectually isolated during the winter months. 
The only routes eastward were through Can- 
ada or the more tedious one by the south 
shore, both by land carriage. The comple- 
tion of the Great Western through Canada in 
January, 18e54, opened the first direct rail- 
way route to the east. The Southern road 
had, however, some time previously, formed 
an eastern connection. 

The route originally projected for the 
j^orthern railway from Port Huron to Grand 
Rapids, remained unoccupied for over thirty 
years. The section from Port Huron to Flint 
was eventually covered by. the Chicago & 
Grand Trunk, opened in 1871. The present 
trunk line kno^vn as the Chicago & Grand 
Trunk was first built in four or five sections 
by as many different companies — the eastern 
section as noted, the section from Flint to 
Lansing by a company in the Vanderbilt in- 
terest, the section between Lansing and Bat- 
tle Creek by a local company, and west of 
Battle Creek by other companies. The con- 
solidation of the whole was effected in 1880. 

Any detailed history of railways is, of 



course, out of the question in this connec- 
tion. But those who care to take a backward 
glance may profitably indulge a thought as 
to the marvelous development of the railway 
system. How many are there who know or 
think that it is less than fifty years since 
Michigan was brought in social and commer- 
cial touch with the east during the winter 
season? Let the reader concentrate his mind 
on the railway system of the country. Let 
him view in imagination the moving trains 
crossing the continent in all directions. Let 
him enter the depots and yards in half a 
thousand cities and study the equipment and 
interlacing trackage. Let him enter the pas- 
senger trains and find them equipped with 
every comfort and luxury required for rest 
and refreshment. If one can conceive the 
whole panorama in fanciful view, tliere comes 
with the vision the thought as a verity that 
it is all the product of seventy years of time. 
There are those now living who had reached 
adult life before there was a single rail laid on 
the continent. But it is not within the prov- 
ince to dwell upon the wonderful or marvel- 
ous. The electric light has flashed upon the 
world, and maybe the next seventy years will 
throw the last in tlie shade, and hold him who 
should write of the past with wonderment, as 
a simpleton. 

In some of the earlier experiences in rail- 
roading the cars were drawn by horses on a 
wooden rail. This was only provisional, how- 
ever. The strap rail was looked forward to 
as the ultimate and the perfect in railroad 
building. The strap rail was a wrought iron 
strap or plate of convenient length for hand- 
ling, about half an inch thick and two inches 
or more in width. The ties were placed on 
the roadbed, on which wooden rails were 
placed, and on these the iron or strap rail was 
fastened by spikes. Early passenger cars 
were modeled much after the stage coach, 
the resemblance being strictly in accordance 
with the law of evolution. Up to within a 
few years it was the custom to designate each 
locomotive by some name, but there came to 
be so many locomotives that there were not 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



56 



names enough to go around, and they are now 
known, like the convicts in a prison, by their 
numbers only. 

Three of the important railways of the 
State owe their construction largely to gov- 
ernment land grants; wholly so, it may be 
said, because without the land grants the 
roads would probably not have been built. 
The Grand Kapids & Indiana railroad, run- 
ning from Fort Wayne, Ind., to the Straits of 
Mackinac, a distance of 368 miles, like many 
other trunk lines, is the fruit of consolidations 
with several shorter lines. It received land 
grants from Congress aggregating 1,160,382 
acres. The Flint & Pere Marquette Railway 
was originally projected from Flint to Pere 
Marquette on Lake Michigan, in aid of which 
a liberal grant of land was made by (Congress. 
I'he Flint & Holly, extending from Flint to 
Holly, a distance of 17 miles, w^as built by the 
late Governor Crapo as a means of transporta- 
tion for the lumber product centering at 
Hint, of which he was the largest manufac- 
turer. It was absorbed in 1868 by the F. & 
P. M., under a hundred year lease. The Holly, 
Wayne & Monroe road, running from Holly 
to Monroe and Toledo, was also consoli- 
dated with the F. & P. M. in 1871, giving a 
continuous line from Ludington to Monroe, 
253 miles, and to Toledo, 273 miles, with a 
branch from Plymouth to Detroit, 25 miles, 
and other branches. The Detroit connection 
is, however, essentially a part of the main 
line. The Jackson, Lansing ct Saginaw road 
extends from Jackson to the Straits of Mack- 
inac, a distance of 295 miles. It was largely 
constructed upon the streng'th of a land grant 
made to the Amboy, Lansing and Traverse 
Bay Railroads, of whose franchises it became 
possessed. 

The Mackinac & Marquette Raib'oad, 
which connects the Straits of Mackinac with 
the city of J\larquette, and the LoAver with the 
Upper Peninsula through connecting lines 
southward, owes its construction to a State 
land grant. In the later sixties, the city of 
(Chicago enjoyed direct railway connection 
with the iron and copper districts of the 



Upper Peninsula, while the Lower Peninsula 
was entirely cut off from such communication 
during the winter months. The business in- 
terests of the Ldwer Peninsula felt themselves 
at a serious disadvantage by reason of this 
condition of things, and the necessity for a 
railway connection was apparent. The State 
had at its disposal a considerable portion of 
the lands originally ceded by Congress to the 
State as swamp lands, but most of which were 
excellent agricultural lands as well as being 
valuable for their timber aild mineral depos- 
its. At the Legislative session of 1873, par- 
ties proposed the construction of a railroad 
fi'om Mackinac to Marquette on condition of 
a grant of these lands. A grant of ten sections 
per mile of road to be built was made in 1873, 
which was increased in 1875 to sixteen sec- 
tions. The construction of the road was, how- 
ever, not begun until 1879, it being com- 
pleted to Marquette in December, 1881. 

It should be stated in farther explanation 
(hat the land grants by Congress were to the 
State, but for the purposes more or less specif- 
ically set forth. And in so far treating of the 
several grants, the effort has been to touch 
as lightly as possible upon the history of the 
roads, that the work may not seem invidious 
toward other roads whose history cannot be 
given for obvious reasons. 

The flush times, growing out of a re- 
dudant currency during the 1860 decade, as 
a fruit of the war, greatl} stimulated railway 
enterprises in the State. There was a press- 
ing demand for municipal or local aid to these 
enterprises. Their promoters desired author- 
ity on the part of townships and municipali- 
ties to vote such aid, to be represented by cor- 
porate bonds, and there was a marked willing- 
ness on the part of the people to respond to 
the demand. At the special Legislative ses- 
sion in 1864 and the regular session of 1865 
a score or more of acts were passed authoriz- 
ing the extension of such aid, which was in 
most cases willingly voted by the people. The 
plan was one which grew by what it fed on, 
and at the session of 1867 many additional 
measures were proposed on the same line, and 



56 



MEN OP PROGRESS. 



a number of enabling acts passed both houses 
of the Legislature. Gov. Crapo, however, in- 
terposed his veto to check what he regarded as 
an unwise and dangerous course of legislation. 
There was a determined, though unsuccess- 
ful, effort to pass the bills over the veto, and 
legislation on the subject was brought to a 
standstill. The constitutionality of the acts 
that had been passed at previous sessions was 
called in question, and the Supreme Court of 
the State (20 Mich. 452), declared them un- 
constitutional, and the bonds that had been 
voted and issued in pursurance of such acts, 
null and void. Gov. Baldwin felt that the 
good name and credit of the State were in- 
volved, and he called a special session of the 
Legislature, Avhich met July 27, 1870, at 
which he recommended the submission of an 
amendment to the constitution authorizing 
the payment of the bonds that had been nego- 
tiated in good faith. The amendment was 
accordingly submitted by the Legislature, but 
was defeated by popular vote at the N^ovem- 
ber election in that year. The matter went to 
the United States courts, however, and it was 
there held that bonds negotiated in good faith 
before the adverse decision of the State Court, 
were valid, and must be paid. 

In the winter of 1873, the office of Com- 
missioner of Railroads was established by the 
Legislature, and the value of that office in 
systematising railway management, as an 
agent between the corporations and the peo- 
ple, and in the collection of facts and statis- 
tics, is shown by the work of the department. 
The progress of railway construction in Mich- 
igan is practically shown by the following 
figures. The figures are approximations 
only up to the year 1873, since which time 
they are official through the office of the Com- 
missioner of Railroads, and are designed to 
show the number of miles in operation at the 
beginning of each year given, namely: 1841, 
138 miles; 1850, 342; 1855, 474; 1860, 779; 
1865, 941; 1866, 1,039; 1867, 1,163; 1868, 
1,199; 1869, 1,325; 1870, 1,638; 1871, 



2,116; 1872,' 2,214; 1873, 2,975; 1874, 
3,253; 1875, 3,315; 1880, 3,823.95; 1885, 
5,247.48; 1890, 6,957.27; 1895, 7,608.6L 

By the report of the commissioner for the 
}'ear 1874, thirty-four railway corporations 
were doing business in the State, representing 
5,278.36 miles of track, of which 3,314.98 
miles were Avithin the State. By the reports 
for 1896 there were eighty-nine roads doing 
business in the State, including eight ore and 
forest roads, with a total mileage in the State 
of 9,958.15, of which 2,165.86 miles were 
sidings and spurs. During the year 1897 six 
new companies were formed, with a proposed 
track construction of 247 miles. The greatest 
track construction on record in any one year 
was in 1872, being 901 miles. The least, 
since authentic reports were made, was 44.53 
miles in 1877. The desparity between the two 
years forcibly impresses the effect of the 
financial de]3ression beginning in 1873. 

As part of the railway system of the State, 
the transfer ferries, by which entire trains 
are earned across Detroit river and the Straits 
of Mackinac, the tunnel at Port Huron, and 
the international bridge at Sault Ste. Marie, 
deserve mention. 

The following statistics are taken from 
tables accompanying the report of the Com- 
missioner of Railroads for 1898: 

x\ccording to the report of the Railroad 
Commissioner for 1898 there were 7,816 
miles of railroad in the State or 10,018 reck- 
oned as single track. This was an increase 
of 57 miles over the previous year. 

The paid in capital stock of these roads 
amounted to $439,076,478, of which $10,- 
811,799 was owned in Michigan. The total 
debt of these roads amounted to $664,861, 
718. 

During the year 43,401,571 passengers 
were carried and the passenger revenue 
amounted to nearly $1 per passenger carried. 
In the same year 88,987,235 tons of freight 
were carried and the revenue aggregated 
$61,453,120. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



57 



GOVEENMENT LAND GRANTS. 



The University Lands — Primary School Lands — 
Agricultural College Lands— Salt Spring Lands— 
Sault Ste. Marie Canal Lands— Swamp Lands- 
Railway Land Grants. 

Michigan has not been overlooked in the 
matter of bounties by the general government 
in the way of land grants. The government 
became an extensive land owner by the ces- 
sion to it of the Northwest territory. A con- 
troling motive in making this cession was to 
place the government in possession of a do- 
main from which it might discharge in part 
its obligations incurred in the war of inde- 
pendence. In saying that Michigan has been 
liberally dealt by in the way of land grants 
does not imply that she has fared any bet- 
ter than other new States. 

By Act of Congress of 1804 an entire 
township of land was set apart in each of the 
territories of the northwest ^^for seminaries of 
leaming.^^"^* This land was to be in one body, 
and the original intent was that it was to be 
leased, but not sold. No location of the sec- 
tion had been made up to 1819. Gov. Wood- 
bridge, who then represented the territory in 
C^ongress, fearing that by reason of the rapid 
settlement of the territor)^ an entire town- 
ship of desirable land could not well be se- 
cured, agitated the plan of having the terms 
of the grant so changed that the land might 
be selected in detached tracts. The effort was 
successful in 1826, at which time land to the 
extent of an additional township was also 
granted. These two grants, with three addi- 
tional sections of land secured by means of an 
Indian treaty negotiated at Fort Meigs in 
1817, constitute the original endowment of 
the University of Michigan. The lands have 
been sold, and the proceeds have gone into 
the State treasury, forming one of the "trust 
funds,'' on which the State pays interest at 
the rate of 7 per cent, to the University, equal 
to alx)ut $37,500 per annum. Only forty 
acres of the University lands remain unsold. 
The University lands were of the choicest 
farminiz: lands in the State. The minimum 



♦Public Instruction and School Law, 1852, p. 3. 



price at which they were to be sold, as by 
Act of March 21, 1837, was e$20 per acre. 
The earlier sales averaged $22.85 per acre. 
A payment was required to be made at the 
time of purchase, but the greater part of the 
purchase price w^as allowed to remain for a 
term of years upon payment of interest. The 
financial stringency and industrial depression 
of the period came on, and in a number of 
cases easier terms were granted to some of 
the settlers. The minimum price of the un- 
sold lands was finally reduced to $12 per 
acre. In brief, while an endowment fund of 
$1,000,000 had been looked for, only a litr 
tie more than half that sum was realized. 
Prof. Ten Brook, in his work, analyzes the 
situation quite fully, with an implication of 
bad faith (or at least a want of prudent care), 
on the part of the Legislature, in administer- 
ing the trust. The problem seems hardly 
worth considering. Had the expected sum 
been realized it would have brought $70,000 
per annum^ at seven per cent., as against 
$38,500, which the fund now receives. If, 
by the dereliction of the State, the annual 
income from the interest fund is $31,500 less 
than it should be, the difference is repaid 
more than six fold by present State appro- 
priations. 

The first formal dedication of land to edu- 
cational uses was by ordinance of the Con- 
gress of the Confederation, May, 1785. By 
this ordinance Section 16 of each surveyed 
township was dedicated to the support of com- 
mon schools. It would seem a little puzzling 
how Congress could make this dedication 
when it had no land to dedicate. The public 
lands at that time all belonged to the States 
in which situated. Congress became the dis- 
penser of the public domain only by virtue of 
the ordinance of 1787, and it was perhaps in 
anticipation of what was to be that the action 
of 1785 was taken. Passing this query, how- 
ever, the dedication or consecration of one- 
thirty-sixth of the public domain in the States 
of the west for the support of common schools, 
is a feature of their history as ineradicable as 



58 



MEK OF PROGRESS. 



are their rocks from their geological structure. 
The Act of 1785 has been confirmed by vari- 
ous Acts of Congress under the constitution, 
and specifically as to Michigan in the Act 
providing for her admission into the Union 
June 23, 1836. About 1,070,016 acres of 
land accrued to the State by virtue of these 
Acts, of which some 190,000 acres remain 
unsold. The school lands are held at the 
minimum price of $4 per acre. 

Congress, by an Act approved July 2, 
1862, gTanted to the several States and Terri- 
tories which may provide colleges for the 
benefit of agriculture and mechanic arts, an 
amount of public lands equal to 30,000 acres 
for each Senator and Kepresentative in Con- 
gTess to Avhicli such State was entitled under 
the census of 1860. Under this grant Michi- 
gan received about 240,000 acres, of which 
about 80,000 acres remain unsold. The Leg- 
islature, by Act 221, 1875, granted to the 
Agricultural College all of the imsold swamp 
land in the townships of Lansing and Meri- 
dian, in Ingham County, and in the town- 
ships of Dewitt and Bath, in Clinton county. 
, Congress, by Act June 23, 1836, granted to 
the State of Michigan all salt springs within 
the State, not exceeding twelve in number, 
with six sections of land adjoining or as con- 
tiguous as may be to each, for its use, the 
same to be selected to be used on such terms, 
conditions aud regulations as the Legislature 
might direct. This would be equal to sev- 
enty-two sections, or two entire townships. 
March 3, 1847, Congress gave consent to the 
sale of the salt spring lands by the State. 
March 28, 1849, the Legislature appropriated 
ten sections of salt spring lands for the pur- 
pose of defraying cost of the erection and 
completion of the buildings for a ISTormal 
School and for the purchase of necessary ap- 
paratus and books, and for various other in- 
cidental expenses of the institution. By the 
same Act fifteen sections of salt spring lands 
were appropriated for an endowment fund 
for the jS^ormal School. By Act 187, Laws of 
1848, eight sections of salt spring lands were 
appropriated for the erection of suitable 



buildings for the Michigan Asylum for edu- 
cating the deaf and dumb and the blind, and 
the Michigan Asylum for the Insane. Act 
282, Laws of 1850, appropriated ten addi- 
tional sections for the same purpose. There 
remains unsold of the salt spring lands less ' 
than 1,500 acres. 

By Act of Congress August 26, 1852, an 
aggregate of 750,000 acres of land in Michi- 
gan was granted to the State to aid the con- 
struction of the canal at the Sault de Ste. 
Marie, popularly contracted as the "Soo.'' 
This grant was turned over to a company pur- 
suant to Act of the Legislature in 1853, in 
consideration of the constniction by them of 
the first Sault canal. The company kept an 
office in Detroit for a number of years for the 
sale of these lands, but it was closed many 
years ago, and if there are any of the lands 
remaining unsold they are controlled by 
agents of the company at the east. 

By Act of September 28, 1850, Congress 
granted to certain States to enable them to 
reclaim the swamp lands within their limits 
by constructing the necessary levees and 
drains, the whole of the swamp and over- 
flowed lands within their borders respectively 
remaining unsold at the time of the passage of 
the Act. By arrangement between the State 
and Federal Government the basis of the se- 
lection of such lands in Michigan was to be 
the field notes of the surveys as made by the 
surveyors and deputy surveyors employed by 
the general government. Lists of such lands 
were prepared by the surveyor general and 
submitted to the (commissioner of the Gen- 
eral Land Office and by him to the Secretary 
of the Interior for approval or rejection. 
From lists approved by the Secretary of the 
Interior, patents were prepared and issued to 
the State. Michigan received, approximately, 
six million acres under this grant. 

Many of the lands patented to the State as 
swamp lands were among the best farming 
lands in the State, having on them barely 
enough swamp to make a trace on the field 
notes of the surveyors. It was for a consid- 
erable time a question how the terms of the 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



59 



grant, which contemplated the construction 
of levees and drains, could be complied with. 
It was a work that the State did not want to 
undertake, even could it have been carried 
on by any practicable method. It was finally 
determined that the spirit of the con- 
tract, as implied by the terms of the grant, 
would be equitably met if the drainage and 
reclamation was effected by means less direct 
than by the State itself. This was the course 
substantially recommended by Gov. Bing- 
ham in his message to the Legislature in spe- 
cial session in 1858, that instead of the State 
doing the w^ork, it should be the policy "rather 
to dispose of them (the lands) in all the dis- 
tricts where there are settlements, at such a 
low price as would justify the purchaser in 
making the necessary provision for their 
drainage and improvement.'' Act No. 117, 
Laws of 1859, in a preamble, set forth that 
"In the opinion of the Legislature, the most 
efficient means of effecting that end (the 
drainage, etc.), is the construction of roads, 
with proper ditches and drains.'' The Act 
provided for laying out ten State roads, the 
cost to be met either by money proceeds from 
swamp land sales or by lands direct. Later it 
became the practice to appropriate lands in 
specific quantities for the construction of 
roads on defined routes, or the improvement 
of certain water courses, and the session laws 
for a dozen years or more are replete with 
Acts for this purpose. Details of the legisla- 
tion are necessarily out of the question. 
Grants of swamp lands have been made by 
the State in aid of railway construction as 
follows: To the (Tiicago & I^orthwestern 
Railway Co., 141,674: acres; Detroit, Macki- 
nac & Marquette R. R. Co., 1,327,041; Mar- 
quette, Houghton & Ontonagon R. R. Co., 
82,422; Menominee River R. R. Co., 144,- 
371. Of the 6,000,000 acres embraced in the 
grant, only about 100,000 remain in the 
hands of the State. This is certainly evidence 
of the original value of the lands and of tlie 
industrious manner in which the State lias 
passed them out of its hands. 

Under the provisions of an Act of Con- 



gress, June 3, 1856, lands w^ere granted to 
the State of Michigan to aid in the construc- 
tion of a railroad from Little Bay De ?fo- 
quet to Marquette, and thence to Ontonagon, 
and from the last two named places to the 
Wisconsin State line. Also from Amboy, by 
way of Hillsdale and Lansing, and from 
Grand Rapids to some point on or near Tra- 
verse Bay, and from Grand Haven and Pere 
Marquette to Flint, and thence to Port Hu- 
ron. By Act of the State Legislature, Feb- 
ruary 15, 1857, the grant was conferred upon 
various companies named in the Act, some 
nine in number. Ihider this Act a Board of 
Control, wath the Governor as president, was 
created to manage and dispose of the grant, 
and do all things necessary to carry out the 
provisions of the granting Act. The Acts 
were several times amended by Congress and 
by the Legislature, and new Acts and joint 
resolutions were passed respecting the lands. 
I'lie original companies in several cases never 
filed maps of location; others failed in whole 
or in part to comply with the requirements of 
the Act as to time of completion, and by con- 
solidations others were absorbed into new cor- 
porations. 

By the terms of the grants, the lands were 
to be confirmed to the companies propor- 
tionally, on the completion of their roads 
in twenty mile sections. Failure to con- 
struct Avithin the specified time, mth other 
lapses, wrought a forfeiture of right, and on 
]\Iarch 2, 1889, Congress declared a forfei- 
ture of all the land co-terminous with the un- 
completed portion of any railroad in aid of 
wdiich the Act of 1856 was made;, and joint 
resolution 19 of the legislative session of 1889 
autliorized the relinquishment by the State of 
all lands certified for railroad purposes and 
unearned. This legislation practically closed 
one of the most perplexing and complicate<i 
grants ever made by Congress. The total of 
lands certified to the State under the Act of 
Congress was approximately 3,776,590 acres. 
There is no ready means of ascertaining what 
portion of these lands passed into the hands 
of the railway companies before the Act of 



60 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



forfeiture. The principal beneficiaries were 
the Jackson/ Lansing & Saginaw (591,000 
acres), the Flint & Pere Marquette and the 
Grand Eapids & Indiana, in the Lower Pen- 
insula, and in the Upper Peninsula the Chi- 
cago & North western, the Marquette, Hough- 
ton & Ontonagon (now part of the Duluth, 



South Shore & Atlantic) and the Ontonagon 
& Brule River. 

The data on which the foregoing is pre- 
pared has been largely supplied by Messrs. 
Loomis and Wilkinson, deputies respectively- 
in the State Land Office and Auditor Gen- 
eral's Office. 



MINERAL RESOURCES. 



Early Discovery of Copper — Later ^Explorations — 
Discovery of Iron Ore— Geological Survey — Dr. 
Douglass Houghton— Work on the Survey by 
Others — Copper anci Copper Mining — Statistics of 
Copper Production — Ancient Mine Work — Iron 
and Iron Mining — Iron Ore Shipments — ^Saline 
Interests — Gold and Silver — Other Mineral Pro- 
ducts. 

It was deemed a hard bargain by the peo- 
ple of Michigan when they consented to the 
surrender of a strip of productive land on the 
southern boundary and the acceptance in its 
stead of a rock-bound and comparatively un- 
known region, as a condition of the admit- 
tance of the State as a member of the Union. 
It was a profitable exchange, nevertheless, as 
results have shown. 

While iron and copper are not by any 
ineans the only minerals that are found, as the 
more iniportant, they justly claim first men- 
tion. The first account of the occurrence of 
native copper on Lake Superior is in the work 
of "Lagarde," published in Paris, in 1636, in 
w^hich some interesting accounts are found 
concerning the richness of the country. He 
says: "There are mines of copper which 
might be made profitable, if there were in- 
habitants and workmen who would labox 
faithfully. That would be done if colonies 
were established. About eighty or one hun- 
dred leagues from the Ilurons there is a mine 
of copper, from which ^Truchement Brusle' 
showed me an ingot on his return from a 
voyage he made to the neighboring nation.'' 

Father Claude AUouez, a Jesuit mission- 
ary, who visited the region in 1666, says: "It 
liappens frequently that pieces of copper are 
found w^eighing from ten to twenty pounds. 



1 have seen several such pieces in the hands 
of the savages; and since they are very super- 
stitious, they esteem them as divinities, or as 
presents given to them to promote their hap- 
piness, by the gods who dwell beneath the 
water. For this reason they preserve these 
pieces of copper, wrapped up with their most 
precious articles. In some families they 
have been kept for more than 50 years; in 
others, they have descended from time imme- 
morial — being cherished as domestic gods." 

Father Dablon, 1669-70, says: ^^After hav- 
ing reached the extremity of the lake there 
may be seen, on the south shore, by the 
water's edge, a mass of copper weighing 600 
to 700 pounds, so hard that steel cannot cut 
it; but when heated it may be cut like lead." 
On one of the islands near Chagnemegon bay, 
he relates that copper rocks and plates are 
found, and that he bought of the savages a 
plate of pure copper, two and a half feet 
square, weighing more than 100 pounds. He 
supposes that they have been derived from 
Menong (Isle Koyale ). He mentions the 
fact that the Ottawa squaws, in digging holes 
in the sand to hide their corn, find masses 
weighing 20 to 30 pounds. 

In 1689, Baron La Ilouton, in a book relat- 
ing to travels in Canada, mentions that "upon 
Lake Superior we find copper mines, the 
metal of which is fine and plentiful, there 
being not a seventh part base from the ore." 

In 1721, P. de Charlevoix describes the 
native copper deposits, and superstitions 
whicli the Indians had in regard to them, in 
considerable detail. 

Captain Jonathan Carver visited Lake Su- 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



61 



perior in 1765, and in his account dwelt so 
largely on the abundance of native copper 
that a copper company was formed i|i Eng- 
land in 1771, which actually began mining 
operations on the Ontonagon river, under the 
direction of Mr. Alexander Henry, who seems 
to have been a better historian than miner; 
for he gives a detailed account of the winding 
up of his operations in 1772, and concludes, 
as the result of his unsuccessful experiment 
in mining, "that the country must be culti- 
vated and peopled before the copper can be 
profitably mined." 

In 1819 Gen. Lewis Cass, under authority 
of the Secretary of War, directed an explor- 
ing expedition, which passed along the south- 
ern shore of Lake Superior and crossed over 
to the Mississippi. This expedition had, 
among its principal objects, that of investi- 
gating the northwestern copper mines; and 
was accompanied by 11. R. Schoolcraft in the 
capacity of mineralogist and geologist. 

In 1831 an expedition was sent out by the 
United States government under the com- 
mand of Mr. Schoolcraft, for the purpose of 
ascertaining the sources of the Mississippi. 
Dr. Douglass Houghton was attaclied to this 
party, and he subsequently speaks of the aid 
afforded by the observations made at this time 
in tracing the fragments of copper to their 
place in the rock. 

The outline of the history of the discovery 
of the copper deposits here given is found in 
the report of T. B. Brooks, 1873, and in other 
published reports. Citations to original 
sources cannot well be given. 

The date of the iron discovery is quite un- 
certain, but is much more recent than that of 
copper. In his geological report of 1841, 
Dr. Houghton says : "Although hematite ore 
is abundantly disseminated through all the 
rocks of the metamorphic group, it does not 
appear in sufficient quantity at any one point 
that has })een examined, to be of practical im- 
portance.'' At this date Dr. Houghton had 
traversed the south shore of Lake Superior 
five times, in a small boat or canoe, on geo- 
logical investigations. It is, therefore, prob- 



able that up to 1841 no Indian traditions 
worthy of credence, in regard to large de- 
posits of iron ore, had come to his knowledge. 
As there are, so far as known, no considerable 
outcrops of iron ore which come nearer than 
seven miles of the shore of the lake, it is plain 
that investigations, based on observations 
taken along the shore only, could have deter- 
mined no more than its probable existence, 
which is plainly indicated in the extracts 
given. The United States surveyors, in the 
fall of 1844, oflScially established the fact 
that iron ore in considerable quantities existed 
in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

Steps had been taken with a view to an ex- 
ploration of the copper region during the 
presidency of John Adams, but nothing was 
ever effected. The work of systematic scien- 
tific exploration was first undertaken by Dr. 
Douglass Lloughton, the earliest State geolo- 
gist, pursuant to Act of the State Legislature 
of February 23 and March 22, 1837. Dr. 
Houghton, in his annual report to the Legis- 
lature in 1841, presented the results of his 
labors up to that period in so able a manner 
that the attention of the world became 
directed to the Northern Peninsula with 
greatly increased interest. The Acts of the 
Legislature, providing for the geological sur- 
vey, contemplated also the topographical, zoo- 
logical and botanical features, embracing the 
entire State, but the two latter were discon- 
tinued in 1840. For the purposes contem- 
plated by the original Act, Dr. Houghton 
was supplied with a corps of assistants, who 
were probably mostly amateurs without com- 
pensation, as may U) inferred from the resig- 
nations of those in charge of the zoological 
and botanical departments in 1839. The 
first annual report, 1838, reasonably enough, 
was a brief one, but the one for 1839, com- 
prising 153 pages, covers the several depart- 
ments of geology, zoology, botany and topo- 
graphy. The third and fourth annual re- 
ports followed, having reference more or less 
to localities in the Lower Peninsula, but 
treating more particularly of the Lake Supe- 
rior region. For a full resume of the early geo- 



62 



]\rEN OF PKOGRESS. 



logical work, with citations of authorities, see 
Prof. WinchelFs report, 1860, from which 
synopses here presented are largely drawn. 

The financial stringency in the early forties 
compelled a suspension of the work of the 
geological survey. Dr. Houghton's devotion 
to the work, however, inspired him to devise 
another means for its prosecution. An ap- 
propriation was secured from Congress in 
1841 for connecting a geological and mineral- 
ogical survey with the linear surveys of the 
public lands of the Upper Peninsula, the 
former under Dr. Houghton and the latter 
under Wm. A. Burt, a name intimately asso- 
ciated with Upper Peninsula history. The 
work of one season had been nearly com- 
pleted, when it was brought to an unfortunate 
termination by the death of Dr. Houghton 
by drowning, October 13, 1845. Mr. Bela 
Hubbard, a former resident of Detroit, and 
well known in literary and scientific circles, 
w^as associated with Dr. Houghton in the first 
geological work under State auspices. He 
was therefore chosen, in connection with Mr. 
Burt, to compile reports of the work of 1845 
from the field notes of that year — ^Mr. Burt 
from his own notes and Mr. Hubbard from 
those of Dr. Houghton. ^'These two reports 
unfold in an admirable manner the geological 
structure of the trap and metamorphic regions 
of Lake Superior, and anticipate results Avhich 
were subsequently worked out by the United 
States geologists.""^ 

After the death of Dr. Houghton the 
names of Charles J. Jackson, Poster and 
AVhitney, Prof. Alexander Winchell, Brooks 
and Pumpelly, Dr. Charles Eominger, 
Charles E. Wright, W. E. Wadsworth and 
Lucius L. Hubbard are associated with the 
survey, either under State or government 
auspices. 

Copper mining on Lake Superior com- 
menced in 1845. The discoveries of Lake 
Superior were of native copper, which was a 
novelty in copper mining, and so improbable, 
according to all geological precedents, that 
much doubt was expressed by scientific men 



*Prof. Winchell's report, 1860. 



iij regard to its reality. The facts were, how- 
ever, abundantly proven. 

In the report of Foster and Whitney, made 
in 1847, the copper region is divided into 
three districts, each with an estimated area as 
follows : 

I. The Keweenaw Point district, embrac- 
ing the country from the eastern end of the 
Point to Portage lake, 61,620 acres; 

II. Portage lake to the Montreal river, 
inchiding the Ontonagon district, 18,270 
acres; 

III. Isle Koyale, 77,380 acres. This lat- 
ter is a narrow rocky island, about 45 miles 
in length, lying northeast by southwest, vary- 
ing in width from three to eight miles, and 
some of its hills have an altitude of three to 
four hundred feet. The island, although 
within the State of Michigan, lies much 
nearer the north or Canada shore, than it does 
to the American shore. 

It is imnecessary to repeat (what is said in 
substance if not in terms elsewhere) that 
much of detail that would be of interest (but 
which may be found in print in other forms), 
must be passed over in these sketches. Some 
comparative statistics of the copper produc- 
tion are given: From 1845 to 1858 the total 
production of ingot copper was estimated a^ 
27,910,000 pounds, of the value of $9,000,- 
000. The production gradually increased 
from 7,000,000 pounds in 1858 to 35,000,- 
000 in 1875. The highest price reached per 
pound during the period named was 55 cents 
in 1864, and the lowest 22 cents in 1870. 
The highest figure given was, of course, phe- 
nomenal during the war period, and has never 
since been reached. The lowest figure at any 
time was 9| cents in 1894. The latest table 
accessible, showing annual production, is that 
prepared by Charles E. Wright, commis- 
sioner of mineral statistics, in 1878. The 
total number of tons of refined copper pro- 
duced up to this time was given as 253,035, of 
an aggregate vahie of $123,394,000. It is 
not improbable that subsequent reports of the 
commissioner of mineral statistics may cover 
similar figures for later years, but these re- 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



63 



ports are not printed at Lansing, and are not 
I)roperly State documents, so that they are 
not accessible for all years. The total divi- 
dends paid to stockholders of all copper min- 
ing companies is given in the report of the 
commissioner for 1898 at $79,641,375. Of 
this total, the Calumet & Ilecla Company 
divided $52,850,000, or 65 per cent, of the 
whole. The total production in the United 
States in the year 1897 was: 

Pounds. 

Montana 231,902,796 

Michigan 144,930,670 

Arizona 80,592,049 

Other sources 26,656,000 

Total 484,081,515 

The evidences of ancient mine work by a 
primitive and unknown race are a notable 
feature of the Lake Superior mines. The dis- 
covery of this old work was the discovery 
of the mines. 

In speaking of the ancient mines, Prof. J. 
W. Foster, in his late work on the Pre-His- 
toric Paces of America, says: "The high an- 
tiquity of this mining is inferred from these 
facts: That the trenches and pits were filled 
even with the surrounding surface, so that 
their existence was not suspected until many 
years after the region had been thrown open 
to active exploration; that upon the piles of 
rubbish were found grooving trees which dif- 
fered in no degree, as to size and character, 
from those in the adjacent forest, and that the 
nature of the materials wuth which the pits 
were filled, such as a fine washed clay envel- 
oping half decayed leaves, and the bones of 
such quadrupeds as the bear, deer and cari- 
bou, indicated the slow accumulation of years 
rather than a deposit resulting from a torrent 
of water." 

At a deep inlet, known as Mc Cargoes' 
Cove, on the north side of the island, excava- 
tions extend in almost a continuous line for 
more than two miles, in most instances the 
pits being so close together as barely to per- 
mit their convenient working. The stone 
hammers, weighing from ten to even thirty 
pounds, the chief tool Avitli which the labor 



was performed, have been found in cart loads. 
They are either perfect, or are broken from 
use, and the fragments of large numbers of 
them are found intermingled with the debris 
on the edge of the pits, or at their bottom. 
The sample of mass copper noted as taken 
from the Minong mine is more remarkable 
for these stone-hammcir marks upon its sur- 
face, than for its weight. 

Thougli it is probable that not one-tenth of 
these ancient excavations have so far been 
revealed, some idea of their extent may be ar- 
rived at, from the statement of a gentleman 
familiar with the mines, Avho has calculated 
that, at one point alone on three sections of 
land toward the north side of Isle Eoyale, the 
amount of labor performed by those ancient 
men far exceeds that of one of our oldest cop- 
per mines on the south shore of Lake Su- 
perior, a mine which has now been constantly 
worked with a large force for over twenty 
years. Or, stated in another form, that it 
would have required a force of one hundred 
thousand men fifty years (with their means of 
working) to do an equivalent amount of 
work. 

The practical working of the iron mines, 
commencing about 1845, is the period from 
which dates the chief interest in the subject. 
The first company was a Michigan one, or- 
ganized at Jackson, which gave the name to 
the oldest working iron mine on Lake Su- ' 
perior, the Jackson location and mine. Mr. 
P. M. Everett, then of Jackson, who formed 
one of the company, and was its treasurer and 
agent, writing I^ovember 10, 1845, from that 
jjoint, speaks thus of his previous summer's 
explorations: ^T left here on the 23d of July 
last, and was gone until the 24th of October. 
I had considerable difficulty in getting any 
one to join me in the enterprise, but I at last 
succeeded in forming a company of thirteen. 
I took four men with me from Jackson and 
hired a guide at the Sault, where I bought a 
l)oat and coasted up the lake to Copper Har- 
bor, which is over 300 miles from Sault Ste. 
Marie. We made several locations, one of 
which we called Iron at the time. It is a 



64 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



mountain of solid iron ore, 150 feet high. 
The ore looks as bright as a bar of iron just 
broken."^ 

In the report of the Geological Survey, 
1873, it is said that the "Marquette Iron Re- 
gion" embraces all the developed iron mines 
of the Upper Peninsula. It is said of the 
*^Menominee Iron Region'^ that it has as yet 
sent no ore to market. Further, it is said: 
"The Take Gogebic and Montreal River Re- 
gion' (or Range ) is sO' little known that it 
may be questionable whether it should have 
a place in this economic grouping; it era- 
braces the country between Lake Gogebic and 
the Avest boundary of Michigan, and is 100 
miles west of the Marquette region." The 
subsequent development of this region shows 
the want of adequate estimate of it in 1873. 
Twenty-five years later the Commissioner of 
Mineral Statistics says of it (report, 1898): 
"The Gogebic range is one of the important 
ones of the State, and is the youngest in the 
order of discovery and development." 

Ore shipments from Michigan, Wisconsin 
and Minnesota mines on Lake Superior are 
reported as follows: 



District or Range. 

Marquette Range, Mich — 
Menominee Range, Mich. . . 

Gogebic Range, Mich 

Menominee Range, Wis 

Gogebic Range, Wis 

Mesaba Range, Minn 

Vermillion Range, Minn . . 



No. of 


Shipments 


Cos. 


1897, tons. 


82 


2,711,505 


54 


1,799,856 


29 


1,882,640 


2 


135,813 


n 


374,634 


25 


4,280,863 


4 
211 


1,278,482 


12,463,793 



Total ship- 
ments, tons 

49,25S,759 
21,788,278 
19, '-294,1 61 
2,992 833 
3,414,503 
12,355,446 
10,498.687 

119 602,667 



The cost of railway haulage from mines to 
lake shipping points ranges from 32 to 80 
cents per ton, according to distance. Lake 
transportation to distributing centers is 
quoted, in one instance, as high as $2.75 in 
1880, but ranging from 45 to 70 cents in 
1897. 

Of the production of pig iron, it is said in 
the report from which these statistics are 
taken: "All of the pig iron manufactured in 
Michigan is charcoal iron. There are no 
coke furnaces. The competition of the coke 



♦Geological Survey, 1873, page 14. 



irons is so keen that but little profit remains 
to the Michigan smeltcirs. The margin has 
steadily been growing less, and the present 
finds but little inducement for new stacks or 
improvements upon the old ones.'' Furnaces 
are reported as at Mancelona, Elk Kapids, 
Ishpeming, Fiiiitport, Gladstone, Manistique, 
and three in Detroit, employing 763 men, 
and with an output in 1897 of 126,113 tons. 

Jfext to iron and copper, ranks the salt in- 
dustry of the State in the line of its mineral 
products. The first satisfactory evidence of 
the existence of saline water within the limits 
of Michigan, of a strength sufficient to make 
the manufacture of salt profitable, was ob- 
tained by Dr. Douglass Houghton, the first 
State geologist, previous to 1840. The first 
successful experiments in salt manufacture 
were in the Saginaw Valley, in 1859, under 
the auspices of the East Saginaw Salt Manu- 
facturing Company. The fact is authorita- 
tively stated that greater progress was made 
in the manufacture of salt in Michigan in 
four yeare than in the Kanawha Valley in 
fifty years, and greater progress in the former 
in five than at the Onondaga Salt Springs in 
forty-two years succeeding 1797. Much of 
this progress w^as doubtless due to the policy 
of the Legislature in encouraging the manu- 
facture by a small bounty, during the earlier 
years of the enterprise. 

The salt manufacture of the State is under 
a system of inspection established by law, at 
the head of Avhich is the State Inspector, with 
depnties at such points as may be required. 
There are four grades, marked as Fine, Pack- 
ers', Solar and Second Quality. The salt 
product of 1860 was 4,000 barrels. In 1861 
it had reached 125,000 barrels, and showed a 
quite regular rate of yearly increase, until, in 
1875, it had reached OA^er 1,000,000 barrels. 
In 1880, 2,676,588 barrels; in 1885, 3,297,- 
403; in 1890, 3,838,637; in 1895, 3,529,362. 

The salt inspection is by districts, which 
are grouped as follows, with the number of 



HISl^ORICAL 

barrels inspected in each district in the year 

1897: 



No. 



District. 



Saginaw County. 
Bay County . . . . 
St. Clair County. 

Iosco County 

Midland County.. 
Manistee County. 

Mason County 

Wayne County . . 



No. 

Establish 

ments. 



20 
15 
6 
4 
2 
11 
6 
4 



58 



Barrels. 



284,387 

340,894 

297,064 

42,831 

34,056 

1,827.427 

522,324 

274,431 



3,62;i,8l4 



The price of salt per barrel in 1860 is given 
at, $1.80. It has since nndergone various 
flnctuations, until in 1897 it was 58^ cents. 

The Coinmissioner of Mineral Statistics 
speaks with no little confidence of the future 
of gold production. Throughout the whole 
Upper Peninsula, he says, ^%old has been 



SKETCHES. 65 

found in many places in the Huronian rocks, 
and numerous attempts at developing a pay- 
ing lode have been made." He attributes the 
lack of interest in the gold quest to the 
greater attention that the coarser metals have 
received. Several efforts at developing profit- 
able mining are reported, resulting in a total 
product while in operation of $668,484. Sil- 
ver is regarded as promising, but with the 
production so far but meager. 

Other mineral productions in 1897 are 
given as f ollo^vs : 

Mineral coal, tons 122,850 

Sandstone, cubic feet 120,338 

Gypsum, tons 48,500 

Grindstones, marble, slate, graphite, clay 
and mineral waters, each claim recognition 
in the reports. 



RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 



EOMAA^ CATHOLICS. 



St. Anne's Church and Father Del Halle — Father 
Gabriel Richard — Diocesian Data — Statistics of 
the Church in Michigan. 

In the religious, as well as in the civil 
realm, the Roman Catholics were the pioneers 
in Michigan. A brief reference is made to 
their work in a preceding page. The first 
official occnpation of the territory by Cadillac 
in 1701 represented the trinity that was 
deemed essential to the founding of a State — 
the element of the civil, the military and the 
religious. With the founder of Detroit, with 
his civil commission, came also the martial 
array and the bearer of the cross. One of the 
first acts of Cadillac was the erection of a 
chapel for religious worship. This received 
the name of St. Anne's Church, a name still 
retained by one of the Eoman Catholic 
churches of Detroit. One Father Del Halle 
was post chaplain and pastor of the church. 
He fell an innocent victim at the hands of 
some Ottawa Indians who had become in- 
volved in a brawl with some officers of the 
post, June 0, 1706. St. Anne's was the only 
church in the territory during the first century 
of its civil history. Passing over the cen- 
turv^. Father Gabriel Richard appears as a 
time-mark, not only in the history of the 
Roman Catholic church, but in the social, 
civil and intellectual history of the territory 
as well. He came to Detroit in 1798 as pas- 
tor of St. Anne's Church. He brought the 
first printing outfit to the city in 1809. He 
was an earnest promoter of educational enter- 
prises, and was elected as delegate to Congress 
from Michigan in 1823. He was esteemed 
alike by Protestants and Catholics. He gave 
his life and energies in aid of the cholera- 
stricken inhabitants of the city in 1832, and 
died of cholera September 13 of that year. 



From Hoffman's Catholic Directory for 
1899 the following statistics of the church in 
Michigan are taken: 





s 


CO 

i! 

s 


1^ 

Is' 
ll 


BUhop 

Diocesan priests 


1 

155 

44 

116 

76 

36 

15 

1 

155 

1 

3 

430 

4 

350 

64 

17,200 

5 

500 

1 

12 

1 

125 

20,000 

4 

1 

250 

1 

7,600 

1,200 

3.047 

177,905 


1 

74 
U 
66 
70 
40 
9 


2 
54 


Priests of religious orders 


g 


Churches with resident priest 


56 


Missions with churches 

Stations 


24 

64 


Chapels 

Seminary for secular clergy (Polish). . . 


3 


Students 

Seminary of Religious Order 

Ecclesiastical students for diocese 

Colleges and academies for boys ... 


45' 


6 


Students 






Academies for young ladies . . 

Females educated in higher branches . . 

Parishes and missions with schools 

Pupils 


2 

""45 

10,383 

2 

220 

1 

110 


1 

"26 

5,440 

2 

90 

t2 


Orphan Asylums 

Orphans 

Industrial School 


Inmates 




House of Good Shepherd 




Children in preservation class 

Total of young people under Cath. care. 

Hospitals 

Home for aged poor 


'io',666' 
110 


5,566 
4 


Inmates during year 

Infant asylum 




Baptisms . 

Marriages 

Burials 


4,074 
645 

1,220 
♦17,836 




Catholic population, about 


60.000 



♦Number of families. tFor Indians. 

Michigan was erected into a Eoman Catho- 
lie See in 1838, as the Diocese of Detroit, 
under Bishop Frederick Rese. He was suc- 
ceeded in 1841 by Bishop Lefevre, and he in 
turn by Bishop Borgess in 1870^ Bishop 
I oley, the present bishop, coining to the 
charge in 1888. The diocese of Sault Ste. 
Marie and Marquette was established in 1857, 
comprising the Upper Peninsula, with the 
episcopal residence at Marquette. Eev. Fred- 
erick Baraga, D. D., was the first bishop, 
being succeeded on his death in 1868 by Rev. 
Ignatius Mrak, D. D., who in turn was suc- 
ceeded in 1878 by Rev. John Vertin, D. D., 
wlio died February 26, 1899. Et. Rev. Fred- 
erick Eis is the present bishop. The diocese 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



67 



of Grand Kapids was established in 1882, 
comprising so much of the lower peninsula as 
lies north and west of the counties of Allegan, 
Barry, Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee, Genesee 
and Tuscola. The episcopal residence is at 
Grand Rapids — bishop. Rev. Henry Joseph 
Richter, D. D. A vicar-general and a secre- 



tary are a part of the diocesan staff, the Rev. 
F. J. Baumgartner exercising the office of 
chancellor and secretary in the Detroit dio- 
cese. The polity of the church, in the com- 
pleteness of its organization, embraces many 
subordinate officials, not practicable here to 
enumerate. 



PROTESTANT DElYOMHsTATIONS. 



Rev. David Bacon — Early Methodist Missions — Dr. 
Nathan Bangs — ^Ministration of Father Richard — 
First Protestant Societies — A Couple of Anec- 
dotes 

The first mention of the appearance of a 
representative of the Protestant arm of the 
church places it a century later than the ad- 
vent of the organized church under Cadillac. 
In the settlement of the northwest especially, 
this difference will be noted between the work 
of the two great divisions of the church: The 
Roman Catholic followed the waterways, 
establishing his posts at eligible points as he 
went, while the Protestant found the better 
field for his work where the settler had pene- 
trated the interior and established a social 
community. This difference between the two 
divisions of the church, in their methods and 
results, is illustrated by the experience of the 
first I^rotestant missionar)". Rev. David 
Bacon, a Congregation alist, who had been 
sent out by a society in Connecticut to estab- 
lish a mission among the Indians at Mackinac 
and in the northwest, but "finding no open- 
ing among the Indians, stopped in Detroit," 
where he preached a few times.* This was 
in 1801, and was tlie first Protestant service 
of which there is any record to be found, as a 
propagandist work. 

In 1801 an itinerant Methodist minister 
from Canada, named Freeman, held services 
in Detroit. The first official visitation was 
by Rev. I^athan Bangs, Methodist, under au- 
thority of the I^ew York Conference, in 
1804. 



*History of Protestantism in Michigan, Rev. E. 
H. Pilcher, p, 12. 



The 'New York Conference, in the Metho- 
dist church polity, at that time, exercised jur- 
isdiction over the whole country and Canada, 
and it was through Canada that the work to 
the westward was prosecuted. Dr. Bangs 
holds a prominent place in Methodist history, 
to which he was himself also a contributor. 
The following anecdote is worthy of record, 
as showing that the spirit of mischief was rife 
an hundred years ago as well as at the present 
day. Speaking of one of his sermons, Dr. 
Bangs VTote: "I preached in the old council 
house on a week-day evening. While preach- 
ing, there arose a terrible thunder storm; the 
lightning flashed, the thunder rolled through 
the heavens with awful noise. But I kept on 
preaching. I was afterwards informed that 
two young men sat trembling, fearing that 
God was about to strike them dead for what 
they had done, as they had put powder into 
the candles, in the expectation that they 
would burn down to the powder and explode 
during the sermon."^ Dr. Pilcher speaks of 
the inhabitants of Detroit at the time, who 
were almost wholly of French extraction, as 
^'given up to pleasure, especially during the 
winter months, particularly to music and 
dancing, which tended to weaken the mind, 
vitiate the moral sensibilities, and tO' disin- 
cline them to religion." Those who knew 
Dr. Pilcher as an ardent churchman will not 
marvel that he should have added: "The mere 
ceremonies of Romanism did not lay any re- 
straint on the people in these respects." Of 
Dr. Bangs' work it is said that at the first 
meeting, quoting his words, "the light-hearted 



*Dr. Pilcher's work. 



68 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



people" flocked to hear him, but at the third, 
which was on the Sabbath, only a few chil- 
dren came. "So/' says the historian, "he left 
them, wiping the dnst from his feet as a testi- 
mony against them." 

After the close of Dr. Bangs' mission, in 
1804, there is no mention of a renewal of the 
work until 1809, although the territorial gov- 
ernment, presumedly Protestant in the per- 
sonnel of its officials, was in operation. In 
1807, Gen. Hull, the governor of the terri- 
tory, with other Protestant gentlemen, in the 
absence of any Protestant service, invited 
Father Richard, the Roman Catholic priest, 
to preach to them in English, he and his flock 
being French. In accordance with this invi- 
tation, he held meetings at noon every Sun- 
day in the council house, and gave instruc- 
tions on ^^the general principles of the chris- 
tian religion, the principles to be adopted in 
the investigation of truth, the causes of errors, 
the spirituality and immortality of the soul, 
and the evidences of Christianity in general." 
An amusing anecdote is told of him in one of 
his discourses. His command of the English 
language was but indifferent, and his aptness 
in translation apparently not the best, and in 
rendering the words, "Ye are my sheep," he 
gave them a savory flavor by saying, "Ye are 
my muttons."^ 

The first Protestant religious society in 
Michigan was of the Methodist denomination, 
organized in 1810. It numbered seven mem- 
bers, including Robert Abbott, a name promi- 
nent in the civil history of the territory and 
in the early days of the State. The propa- 
gandist work was pursued with energy both in 
Michigan and in Canada, as it was a work 
that knew no territorial boundary lines, until 
it was interrupted by the breaking out of the 
war of 1812, to be again taken up after the 
close of the war. Up to this time, according 
to Dr. Pilcher, no other denomination had 
made any effort to gain a footing in the penin- 
sula, other than the first feeble effort of Rev. 
David Bacon, before mentioned. After the 



♦Dr. Pilcher's work. 



close of the war the Methodist work was re- 
sumed by Rev. Joseph Hickey, his work ex- 
tending as far as Monroe. 

The first Protestant denomination to be 
represented in Michigan (except as above) 
was the Presbyterian. Rev. John Monteith, 
a fellow of Princeton College, came to De- 
troit in 181G. Although a Presbyterian, his 
mission took on a non-sectarian character, and 
a society was organized under the name of 
the First Evangelical Society of Detroit, and 
a church edifice was subsequently built, that 
being the first Protestant church erected in 
Michigan. The society, in the process of 
evolution, subsequently became the First 
Presbyterian Society, which is still in ex- 
istence. 

A couple of anecdotes are introduced in 
this connection as illustrating the change that 
has taken place in the tone of pulpit utter- 
ances since the early part of the century. In 
1817 a Methodist minister named Joseph 
Mitchell was preaching in Detroit. His 
church services and those of Mr. Monteith 
were held alternately in the council house, 
and in various ways the two were brought 
into friendly conference. On one occasion 
Mr. Monteith said to Mr. Mitchell: "I wish 
to make an agreement with you not to preach 
doctrines." He was met with the rejoinder: 
"What, not to preach the doctrines of Metho- 
dism ! I am bound to preach them, for I be- 
lieve every tittle of them to be true. Not to 
preach against Calvinism ! That I am under 
the necessity of doing, for I believe it to be 
an erroneous system of doctrines." The 
clergy at the present day give more thought 
to the good and welfare of mankind and to 
the ethics of life than they do to mere doc- 
trinal abstractions. On a certain occasion, 
when the Governor and other officers and 
men of note were present in the meeting, the 
preacher, pointing toward each one as he ad- 
dressed them, exclaimed: "You, Governor! 
You, lawyers! You, judges! You, doctors! 
You must be converted and bom again, or 
God will damn you as soon as the beggar on 
the dunghill." The days of Rev. Mr. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



69 



Mucklewrath have passed, and language of 
this kind is not now often heard from the 
pulpit. But it is said that Gov. Cass was so 
well pleased with the seirmon that he sent the 
preacher a five-dollar note. 

It would be out of the question to trace the 
history of any of the religious denominations 
with any minuteness of detail. The Metho- 
dist and Presbyterian denominations have 



been already adverted to. The Episcopal 
Church w^as first organically represented in 
1824. The Baptists followed two or three 
years later. The Oongregationalists had a 
number of organized societies in the early 
part of the 1830 decade, although, according 
to Dr. Pilcher, by reason of their union with 
the Presbyterians, they w^ere not distinctively 
known in the State until 1842. 



CHURCH DOCTRINE AND POLITY. 



Methodist Episcopal — Baptist — Congregational- 
Presbyterian — Protestant Episcopal — Church Stat- 
istics. 

The population of Michigan and of the 
country, so far as religious opinion is con- 
cerned, is properly divisible into three general 
classes: Roman Catholics, Protestants, and 
those of no religious profession.^ Of the 
many sects of the Protestants, the live leading 
ones are the Methodist, Baptist, Congrega- 
tionalist, Presbyterian and Episcopal. The 
term Protestant (literally protest-ant), was 
the term applied to those who led in the 
schism from the Roman Catholic Church in 
the sixteenth century — that is, those who 
stood in protest against the dogmas and prac- 
tices of the church — of whom Martin Luther 
in Germany, and John Calvin in France 
(later of Geneva, Switzerland), were the lead- 
ing lights, not forgetting John Knox, in Scot- 
land, a disciple of Calvin. In England the 
protest was more political than doctrinal, aris- 
ing out of a disagreement between Henry 
VIII. and the Pope of Rome. From this 
sprang the Church of England, which is rep- 
resented by the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in the United States. The organic structure 
of the Church of England adhered substan- 
tially to the Roman Catholic, which it sup- 
planted. The Methodist Episcopal Church is 
an outgrowth from the Church of England, 
founded by John Wesley about the beginning 
of the eighteenth century. Its adoption of 
the word "episcopal'' has reference to its or- 

*Keferrii)g lo the mass of the population The Jews 
are a religious people, with other minor cults. 



ganic features rather than to form and doc- 
trine. In this sense both the Roman Catho- 
lic Church, as the parent, and the Episcopal 
and Methodist communions as oifshoots, are 
all "episcopal," each having bishops, with 
more or less of authority in their government. 

The three denominations of Baptists, Con- 
gregation alists and Presbyterians, are doctrin- 
ally known as Calvinistic, basing their faith 
upon the system of theology formulated by 
John Calvin. They have no bishops, and 
government ally their polity is of the popular 
rather than the centralized type. So much 
by way of generalization, leading up to a 
brief statement of the polity and status of the 
several denominations in Michigan. 

The representative assembly of the Metho- 
dist Church is the conference, and the same 
term refers to the geographical division which 
the conference represents. The General Con- 
ference of the United States meets every 
fourth year. An annual conference is held 
in each conference district. There are two 
conferences in Michigan. The Michigan 
conference embraces the western half of the 
lower peninsula, dividing on the meridian line 
(the government basis for land surveys, a 
north and south line passing near the city of 
Jackson), as far north as Roscommon county. 
Eeaving this county on the east, the district 
embraces everything west of it, including 
Charlevoix county, to the straits of Mackinac. 
I'he Detroit conference embraces the balance 
of the State, including the Upper Peninsula. 
While the Methodist conference corresponds 



70 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



ill some respects to the Episcopal diocese, it 
has no resident bishop. Bishops are created 
by the General Conference, when there is a 
need for them, and they are given assigned 
fields of labor. Each annual conference is 
presided over by a bishop assigned to the 
work. The conference is subdivided into dis- 
tricts, each district embracing a number of 
charges, to which a presiding elder is ap- 
pointed. Bay View, a locality chosen for the 
purpose and so named, on Little Traverse 
bay, is the favorite place of summer assembly 
for the Methodist people, but to which people 
of other denominations largely resort. Al- 
bion College is the educational center of 
Methodism in the State, and the denomina- 
tion is journalistically represented by the 
Michigan Christian Advocate. 

The Baptist denomination ranks next to 
the Methodist in point of numbers in the 
State. Their annual representative assembly 
is known as the convention, and is held in 
October of each year, usually about the mid- 
dle of the month. A president is chosen, for 
the session, by the assembly itself. There 
are district associations of a purely advisory 
character. The Baptist denomination, in its 
governmental polity, is similar to that of the 
Congregational. It exercises nO' authority 
over individual churches. Their member- 
ship in its representative bodies is purely vol- 
untary. Their assemblies have no further 
object than fellowship and mutual counsel 
and co-operation. Kalamazoo College, located 
at Kalamazoo, represents the denomination 
educationally. Hillsdale College is under the 
auspices of the Free Will Baptists, a denomi- 
nation differing in tenets somewhat from the 
Baptists proper. The Christian Herald, pub- 
lished in Detroit, is the recognized organ of 
the Baptists of Michigan. 

Congregationalism, in the matter of doc- 
trine, differs but little, if at all, from Presby- 
terianism. The difference is in the matter of 
government and church polity. On this head 
the remarks foregoing relative to the Baptist 
denomination are applicable. The State or- 
ganization of the Congregationalists is known 



as the General Assembly, presided over by a 
moderator. Olivet College is the well-known 
educational center of the denomination in the 
State. The Plymouth Weekly, published in 
Detroit, represents the denomination in the 
field of journalism. 

The State Assembly of the Presbyterians 
is the Synod. A subordinate assembly, of 
which there are nine in Michigan, is the Pres- 
bytery. The national body is known as the 
General Assembly, and meets every year. 
"J'he Synod meets annually, and is presided 
over by a moderator. The Presbytery is the 
legislative body of the denomination. The 
Synod may propose measures to the Presby- 
teries in the form of "overtures,'' and if ap- 
proved by the Presbyteries, the measure is 
promulgated by the Synod and becomes the 
law of the church within the jurisdiction, 
lliis method is so nearly identical with the 
political machinery of the United States 
under the early confederation, that it would 
seem that the one must have been copied 
from, or suggested by, the other. The Pres- 
bytery exercises an advisory power over the 
settlement of pastors over the churches, and 
its consent is also asked as a matter of form 
upon the severing of thei pastoral relation. 
This rule, therefore, differs from the Baptist 
and Congregational denominations, in which 
each church is the judge as to whom it will 
employ. Alma College represents the de- 
nomination educationally, as also a female 
seminary at Kalamazoo. The Tappan Asso- 
ciation is. maintained at Ann Arbor as a social 
and doctrinal center for students at the Uni- 
versity. The newspaper organ is the Michi- 
gan Presbyterian, published in Detroit. 

An annual convention is held by the Epis- 
copalians in each Diocese, of which there are 
three in Michigan, Avith a resident bishop in 
each. The Diocese of Michigan embraces 
the eastern portion of the lower peninsula, as 
does the Diocese of West Michigan the west- 
ern portion. The Diocese of Marquette com- 
prehends the Upper Peninsula. These are 
presided over respectively by Bishops Thos. 
i\ Davies, Geo. D. Gillespie, and G. Mott 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



71 



Williams. The Hobart Guild, so named in 
honor of the late Bishop Hobart, of the De- 
troit Dioeese, is maintained at Ann Arbor as 
a center for students attending the Univer- 
sity. The church has no denominational col- 
lege in the State. The Detroit Churchman is 
its newspaper organ. 

Dr. Pilcher gives the membership of the 
several denominations, presumably at the 
time of the publication of his work, in 1878, 
as follows: 



Methodist 

Presbyterian . . 

Episcopal 

Baptist 

Congregational 



56,100 
13,348 
8,969 
24,508 
13,935 



116,860 
The following statistics of miscellaneous 
religious organizations are compiled from the 
State census report of 1894 : 



African M. E 

Colored Baptist 

Christian Connection 

Christian Adventist 

Christian Reformed 

Church of God 

New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian) 

Disciples of Christ 

Dunkards (German Baptist) 

Evangelican Adventist 

Evangrelical Association 

Free Methodist 

Free Will Baptist 

Friends (Quakers, so-called) 

Jewish. 

Latter Day Saints (Mormon) 

Lutheran 

Mennonite 

Methodist Protestant 

Moravian 

Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter).. 

Reformed Church in America 

Reformed Church in U. S 

Salvation Army 

Seventh Day Adventist 

Union 

Unitarian 

United Brethren 

United Presbyterian 

Universalist 

Wesleyan Methodist 

Miscellaneous 



No. of Or 
ganizations 



18 

2 
43 

5 
56 
18 

JJ 
57 
13 

2 
116 
148 

7^ 

15 
5 

13 
364 

12 

41 
2 
3 

50 
9 
5 



10 
146 

7 
26 
56 

58 



Seating 
Capicity. 



4,200 
450 

10,210 
1,100 

26,245 

2,600 

400 

13,925 

4,150 

450 

30,455 

26,700 

17,810 
3,625 
2,800 
2,120 

98,160 

1,885 

7,785 

250 

1,200 

20,270 
2,325 
1,525 

16,790 
8,475 
3,555 

30,315 
1,900 
7,250 

10.050 

13,305 



The whole number of organizations of all 
denominations in the State is given at 3,936; 
edifices, 3,715; sittings, 1,138,832; value of 
property, $20,775,156. 

In the census report, from which the fore- 
going is taken, no mention is made of the 
Spiritualists, who have a considerable numer- 
ical strength in the State. They may be in- 
cluded under the comprehensive head of 
^^Miscellaneous." Their organic work has 
never developed any great degree of strength. 



although they maintain meetings at many 
places in the State, and have two places of 
summer assembly — at Pine Lake, near Lan- 
sing, and at Island Lake. 

The following statistics are compiled from 
census reports as noted: 



^ w o 

Si •§ ^ 



u 

O 

B 
3 

o 

73 



No. of Church 
edifices. 



Seating 
Capacity. 



Value of Ch. 
Property. 



No. of Church 
edifices. 



8 § 



Seating 
Capacity. 



Value of Ch. 
Property. 



CX> to <£> 



No. of Church 
edifices. 



iO to 
^ Of 



§ 8 



S 8 



S? 2 ;2 

OS •— to 



Seating 
Capacity. 



Value of Ch. 
Property. 



No. of Church 
edifices. 



J2 § ^^ 
■^ ►-* it*. 

tl '^ ^ 



Seating 
Capacity. 



ill 



Value of Ch. 
Property. 



No. of Church 
edifices. 



§ 22 ^ 



Seating 
Capacity. 



Value of Ch. 
Property. 



c! 

O 



MISCELLANEOUS 



POLITICAL PAETIES. 



Derivation of Party Names— Early State Politics- 
Governor Mason — Wocdbridge and Reform — Suc- 
ceeding Democratic Rule — Governor Barry — Anti- 
Slavery Parties — The Van Buren Candidacy of 
1848— Disastrous Whig Defeat in 1852— The Know- 
Nothings—Ex- President Fillmore— Bell and Ever- 
ett — Formation of the Republican Party — Merg- 
ence of the Whig Organization— The "Silver 
Greys" — ^Anti-Chandler Campaign in 1862 — The 
Prohibitionists— The Greeley Campaign of 1872— 
Ex-Governor Blair — The Liquor Traffic in the 
Campaign of 1874 — The Greenback and Other 
Third Parties— Democratic-People's-Union-Silver 
Combination — Political Fusions Not a Success. 

Partisan divisions in the early days of the 
State (as indeed they have usually done) fol- 
lowed national lines — Whig and Democrat. 
The tenn Whig is of British extraction. The 
AVhig party of Britain was the Liberal party, 
as distinguished from the Royalists, or Tories. 
At the time of the revolution parties were 
known by these terms. After the revolution 
the Tory party was unknown, and parties 
were for a time known as ^^ Whigs'' and 
^'Particularist Whigs/' the division being 
upon theories of government, as to whether 
the new government should be a strong, cen- 
tralized power, or one of only partial and lim- 
ited powers. In the organization of the gov- 
ernment under the constitution, parties came 
to be known as Republican and Federalist. 
The Federalist party opposed the war of 
1812, and went out of existence as a conse- 
quence. There was thereafter for some years 
substantially but one party, the Republican, 
the organization in time taking the name of 
"Democratic Republican," and later that of 
Democratic. At the second election of Mr. 
Monroe to the Presidency, in 1820, he re^ 
ceived eveiy electoral vote cast. National 
polities was largely factional during the 1820 
decade, the opposition to the Democrats being 
known as "Coalition" and "Republican," with 



a . contingent , of anti-Masonry. The Whig 
party was revived (or a new party under that 
name was formed) in 1832, and these were 
the party divisions when Michigan entered 
upon statehood. 

The first election for Governor was quite 
one-sided, Governor Mason receiving 7,558 
votes, to 814 for his opponent, John Biddle. 
The contest in 1837 was much closer, Gov- 
ernor Mason's majority over his opponent, 
(;has. C. Trowbridge, being but 768 in a total 
vote of near 30,000. The financial and busi- 
ness depression consequent upon the collapse 
of the speculative and wildcat banking era 
brought a political revolution in 1839 under 
the cry of "Woodbridge and Reform," which 
was the watchword of the Whigs in the cam- 
paign, Gov. Woodbridge winning by a ma- 
jority of 1,158 votes. The result in 1840, 
under the memorable "log cabin and hard 
cider" campaign, varied but little in the rela- 
tive vote from the preceding year. Times 
were not mended, however, when the election 
of 1841 came round, and the Democrats were 
successful, with John S. Barry as their candi- 
date, by a plurality of 5,544. The "Liberty 
Party" (anti-slavery) made its first appear- 
ance at this election, with, a vote of 1,223. 
The Democrats had things their own way, so 
to speak, for the next dozen years. The wise 
administration of Gov. Barry had lifted the 
State out of its financial embarrassment, and 
there was little disposition on the part of the 
people to try a new political experiment. The 
Democratic popular majorities up to 1852 
ranged between the extremes of 3,807 in 
1845 to 8,138 in 1852. The Legislature was 
preponderantly Democratic, and at one or two 
sessions almost solidly so. The Liberty party 
vote reached 3,639 in 1844. In 1848 the 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



73 



Liberty party had given place to the Free Soil 
party, which, with Martin Van Buren as its 
candidate, polled 10,393 votes. This move- 
ment was a diversion against Gen. Cass, the 
then ])emocratic candidate for President, and 
the increased vote (as compared with the Lib- 
erty party vote), was probably drawn abont 
equally from the two- other parties. Gen. 
(Jass, however, carried the State- by an ample 
margin — over 6,000. But the Democrats 
were in a minority of nearly 4,000 votes as 
against the combined' Whig and Free Soil 
vote. This led to a coalition at the guberna- 
torial election in 1849, the two parties uniting 
upon Flavins el. Littlejohn as their candidate, 
but Governor Barry was again chosen by a 
majority of 4,297. The election in 1852 was 
contested on the same lines as in 1848, but 
the Free Soil party failed to hold its own, the 
vote being some 3,000 short of what it was 
in 1848. 

But party politics had reached a crisis. 
The Whigs, at the election in 1852, carried 
but four out of the thirty-one States— Ver- 
mont and Massachusetts in the north, and 
Kentucky and Tennessee in the south. 
Plainly enough, the party was doomed. The 
anti-slavery sentiment at the north received 
a fresh impulse. The '^Know-Nothing'' 
party, a secret organization, came into exist- 
ence. It combined equally opposition to 
Roman Catholic and to foreign immigTant 
influence in politics. It was the crystaliza- 
tion of a sentiment that had manifested itself 
in various forms, but chiefly known as ^''Na- 
tive iVmerican,'' for some years previously. 
The political disturbances in Germany, in 
1848, had thrown a large German contingent 
into the cities. They Avere generally known 
as non-religious or infidel in sentiment, and 
Avere of free and convivial habits. As a 
German speaker at a political meeting was 
once heard to say, referring specially to this 
class of immigrants, ^"^they love liberty and 
they love lager beer.'' This class of immi- 
grants, with their sentiments and habits, 
aroused a prejudice in the mind of the then 
average American. This sentiment was 



equally antagonistic to the two factors men- 
tioned — the Roman Catholic and the Ger- 
man. The rapid growth of a party on the 
lines indicated was a phenomenon only com- 
parable to its rapid decline. It succeeded, 
however, in securing a comparatively large 
and influential representation in Congress 
and in securing control of a number of the 
State governments. It was by no means sec- 
tional, finding 'as strong a foothold in Mary- 
land and Tennessee as in Massachusetts. It 
held the balance of power in the lower house 
of Congress at its meeting in 1855, postpon- 
ing the organization of that body for some 
weeks, and finally resulting in the election of 
IS^. P. Banks to the speakership. It was ab- 
sorbed by the Republican party in the north- 
ern States, but at the south, under the name 
of the American party, as it was officially 
known, it continued as the only organized 
opposition to the Democrats, casting the elec- 
toral vote of Maryland for its candidate, ex- 
President Fillmore, at the Presidential elec- 
tion in 1856. In Michigan, at this election, 
an electoral ticket representing Mr. Fill- 
more's candidacy, was placed in the field, but 
rather as an independent movement than a 
partisan one, receiving 1,660 votes. The 
Know-Nothing party at the south was lost in 
the campaign of 1860, forming, as it did, a 
component of the "Constitutional Union" 
movement, under the candidacy of Bell and 
Everett, who carried the three States of Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, the balance 
of the southern States, except Missouri, which 
^^oted for Douglass, going for Breckenridge, 
the seceding Democratic candidate. The 
Breckenridge vote in Michigan was only 
805. Asa reminiscence, it is worth the while 
to state in passing, that the only electoral 
votes received by Douglass were the nine 
votes of Missouri and three in IvTew Jersey, 
through a combination with the Republicans, 
by which the vote of that State was divided, 
all the other- Northern States going solid for 
Lincoln, resulting in his election. While the 
so-called Know-I^othing or American party 
did not come to the surface as a political 



74 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



factor in Michigan^ it was strong in^ numbers 
and in influence, without the aid of which it 
is extremely doubtful if the Republican 
party could have scored its first victory in 
the State in 1854, with their then compara- 
tively narrow margin of 5,000, and with 
ex-Gov. Barry again leading the opposition. 
The repeal of the so-called Missouri com- 
promise (a slavery restriction measure ), 
1853-4, gave a marked impetus to the anti- 
slavery sentiment at the jSTorth. The Free 
Soil party of Michigan held its State conven- 
tion February 22, 1854, and nominated a 
full State ticket, with Kinsley S. Bingham at 
the head for Governor. The Whig party in 
the State was utterly hopeless and helpless, 
and an alliance wdth the Free Soilers was 
early sought. This took the form of a pop- 
ular call for a mass State convention to be 
held at Jackson, eTuly 6, 1854, with the w^ell 
imderstood if not avowed purpose of forming 
a new party. There was an informal under- 
standing with the leaders of the Free Soil 
party that if the new movement assumed a 
form that seemed to render such a step advis- 
able, their ticket was to be witlidrawn. The 
call was by circulars, which were liberally 
signed, the greater proportion of the signers 
being, as may well be presumed, members of 
the Whig party, with Free Soilers and a con- 
siderable contingent of Democrats. The 
convention met, as proposed, the new party 
was formed, taking the name of Republican, 
the Free Soil ticket was withdrawn, and a 
State ticket nominated, with Mr. Bingham 
at its head. George A. Coe, a man of char- 
acter and ability, who had made a record as a 
Whig member of the State Senate, was 
named for Lieutenant Governor. The Whigs 
were further represented by Jacob M. How- 
ard for Attorney General. The Democratic 
contingent was recognized in the nominations 
for Secretary of State and Auditor General, 
and the Free Soilers by the State Treasurer 
and Commissioner of the Land Office. The 
ticket thus formed was elected by a majority 
in round numbers of 5,000, carrying with it 
three out of the four members of Congress to 



which the State was then entitled, a working 
majority in both houses of the Legislature, 
and the County officers in most of the coun- 
ties. The new party movement afforded an 
apt illustration of practical politics. The 
party had no local organization. The Whig 
committees took the initiative in calling con- 
ventions, but so worded their calls as to in- 
vite the participation and co-operation of all 
who disapproved of the legislation that had so 
stirred popular feeling at the North. It was 
a political drag net that worked out its pur- 
pose. The local conventions were held and 
nominations made regardless of former party 
affiliations. New local committees were 
named, but in their subsequent action they 
forgot that they had been appointed as com- 
mittees of the Whig party, which ceased to 
be known. They became part of the Repub- 
lican organization, which was thereafter to 
control the destinies of the State 

As part of the political history of 1854, 
the agency of the Whig party as a State or- 
ganization should not be overlooked. The 
hopelessness of a campaign conducted on the 
old lines was apparent to all, but there was 
an influential minority in the party that was 
unwilling to fall in with the new movement. 
The Detroit Advertiser, which had been up 
to this time tlie leading newspaper organ of 
the party in the State (although its position 
as such was being contested by the Tribune ), 
led the opposition. What the party should 
do, if it did anything, was earnestly debated. 
A convention was finally called, which met 
at Marshall with a light attendance, but with 
the large majority plainly bent on playing 
into the hands of the new party in some form. 
There was no proposition to endorse the Jack- 
son nominations, but the next thing to doing 
so was to resolve not to make any nomina- 
tions. And thus ended the history of the 
Whig party in Michigan. There was a com- 
paratively small segment of the party that re- 
fused allegiance to the new regime, and who 
came to be known as the "Silver Grays.'' 
These generally found refuge in the Demo- 
cratic party. There was in Detroit an in- 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



75 



fluential follomng of this class, who, at the 
election of 1860, published a manifesto an- 
nouncing their support of Mr. Buchanan, the 
Democratic candidate for President. There 
were sixty-nine of the signers, who' were 
thereafter known as "the famous sixty-nine.'' 
The Eepublican party, from its first suc- 
cess, went on increasing its majorities. In 
1856 it had in roimd numbers 17,000, and in 
1860, 22,000. It met a check in 1862, by 
reason of some hostility that arose to Senator 
Chandler. The ground of this hostility was 
perhaps threefold. With many, the anti- 
slavery sentiment that looked to the extinc- 
tion of slavery in the South as the ultimate 
end to be reached as a result of the war, had 
not taken very deep root, and indeed there 
was much doubt as to how far and to what 
end the war should be prosecuted, and grave 
concern as to the future of the country. Mr. 
Chandler was thought by some to be too ag- 
gressive, and an unsafe leader. Then again 
there were those who tliought that his habits 
were not such as to do credit to the State as 
its representative at tlie capital of the nation. 
Lastly, and possibly tlie more controlling con- 
sideration, was, tliat there were men in the 
party Avho felt that as professional men, whose 
al)ility and standing justly entitled them to 
leadership, they were being overlooked in the 
advanceniciit of a man wliose liistorv, up to 
tliat time, had been bounded by the counting 
room. Whatever the motive, a movement 
was started by men influential in the Kepub- 
lican ranks, the purpose of which was avow- 
edly to defeat the re-election of Mr. Chand- 
ler to tlie Senate. A mass convention was 
called, which met at Jackson in September, 
at which a State ticket was nominated. 
Byron G. Stout, a promising young man, who 
had been a member of the lower house of the 
legislature, and its speaker, in 1857, was 
nominated for Governor. The Democratic 
State convention met in Detroit subsequently, 
and went through the formality of itself nom- 
inating the nominees of the Jackson meeting, 
although the action was by no means cordial 
on the part of many members. 



The influence of the movement was, how- 
ever, manifest in the reduction of the Repub- 
lican majority of 20,000 in 1860 to less than 
one^third of the number in 1862, with Gov. 
Blair, the famous "war Governor,'' leading 
the party hosts. It is perhaps profitless to 
speculate upon what might have been, but 
had the Democrats, in that campaign, given 
to the ticket a cordial, earnest and united 
support, the probable result would have been 
the defeat of the Republicans, and Senator 
Cliandler and Gov. Blair would have con- 
tributed nothing further to the history of the 
critical time in which they were actors. 

The Democrats were not much in evidence 
again during the war, although ex-Lieut. Gov. 
I enton, a war Democrat, who had held a col- 
onelcy in the army, fell but 10,443 behind 
Gov. Crapo in 1864, when Lincoln's ma- 
jority was 17,982. The Republican majorities 
ran up to 30,000 at the next two elec- 
tions, although falling to 16,000 in 1870. 
The Prohibitionists made their first record as 
a political party in 1870, with a vote of 2,710, 
which d^vindled to 1,231 in 1872, and reached 
3,937 in 1874, but failed to assert itself at all 
at the next two elections. 

An anomalous political condition arose in 
1872. There was a "reform'' impulse that 
precipitated itself in a gathering at Cincin- 
nati, at which several Michigan men of both 
parties were present. This gathering nom- 
inated Horace Greeley for President, who 
was also subsequently nominated by the 
Democrats. It was a bitter pill, which many 
Democrats could not swallow. They recalled 
Greeley's life-long hostility to everything 
that was Democratic in name. They treas- 
ured up his famous commentary that "all 
Democrats are not horse thieves, but all horse 
thieves are Dejnocrats." A protesting conven- 
tion was held in Louisville, at which Charles 
O'Connor was named as a Democratic Presi- 
dential candidate. An electoral ticket and a 
candidate for G ovemor were named in Michi- 
gan, receiving but a light vote, less than 3,000. 
Mr. Greeley's vote was 77,000, in a total of 
217,000. The party was paralyzed by the con- 



76 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 



dition in whicli it was placed, and made prac- 
tically no contest, many of its leading mem- 
bers, either tacitly or openly, giving aid and 
comfort to the Republicans, deeming their 
overwhelming success the beet possible protest 
against the action of the Democratic conven- 
tion in nominating Mr. Greeley. The Ke- 
publicans accordingly scored a plurality of 
56,644 for Gov. Bagley, with a few hundred 
less for Gen. Grant, who was running for his 
second term. Ex-Gov. Blair was the guber- 
natorial candidate of the allied Democratic 
and reform forces, and suffered not a little in 
the estimation of his former political asso- 
ciates for having placed himself, or having 
allowed himself to be placed, in that position. 
Gov. Blair was the Eepublican candidate for 
Judge of the Supreme Court at the election in 
1881, and how far the feeling toward him 
contributed to the result at that time is of 
course matter of uncertainty, and at this day 
can only be judged of by comparative figures. 
The Democratic and Greenback coalition car- 
ried the State at that election on a light vote. 
Gov. Blair having 119,870 to 127,376 for his 
competitor. Judge Champlin. At the same 
election Judge Sherwood was elected to a 
vacancy on the Supreme bench by a vote of 
124,639 to 122,330 for his competitor, 
O'Brien, showing a margin of 7,506 for 
Ohamplin over Blair, and of 1,309 for Sher- 
wood over his Republican competitor. But 
whatever feeling may have existed may be 
supposed to have been buried with the honors 
paid to Gov. Blair by the erection of his 
statue in front of the capital at Lansing, 
which was unveiled in the summer of 1898. 

The tide whicli carried Gov. Bagley into 
the Governor's chair in 1872 suffered a re- 
action in 1874. It was an off year, when a 
light vote is usually looked for. A practical 
revision of the constitution (as referred to 
elsewhere) the preparation of which had 
been a favorite measure with Gov. Bagley, 
was to be voted upon at that election. It 
was for some reason regarded unfavorably by 
those engaged in the liquor traffic, who for 
the first time in the history of the State, 



formed a State organization, the declared ob- 
ject of which was to agitate for the passage 
of a license law in place of the statutory pror- 
hibition then existing. This organization 
antagonized the proposed constitution, and 
with it Gov. Bagley, whose plurality shrank 
to 5,969. 

Of the third parties that have sprung up 
from time to time, the Greenback party 
showed the most vigor. It made its first rec- 
ord in 1876, with Peter Cooper as its Presi- 
dential candidate, polling some 9,000 votes in 
the State. Two years later its vote reached 
73,313, being only some 5,000 short of the 
Democratic vote. The combined vote of the 
two parties, how^ever, exceeded the Republi- 
can vote by 25,000, the first time in the his- 
tory of that party when it found itself in a 
minority on the popular vote. This led to an 
effort at the fusion or combination of the two 
parties, which was effected at the State con- 
vention held at Lansing for the nomination of 
candidates for eludge of the Supreme Court 
and Regents of the University, preparatory 
to the spring election in 1879. The move- 
ment was unsuccessful, Judge Campbell 
being elected for a third term, with the Re- 
gents the same way politically. In 1880, 
being a Presidential year, there was no effort 
at fusion, Weaver, the Greenback candidate, 
polling 34,895 votes. But two years later a 
combination on Josiah W. Begole, for Gov- 
eiTior, who graduated from the Republican 
into the Greenback ranks, was successful in 
defeating Gov. elerome. The success was 
only on Governor, the balance of the Repub- 
lican State ticket being elected. Gov. Jer- 
ome's defeat was due tO' the cry that was 
raised against him that he was wedded to^ cor- 
porate interests, the catch phrase of "Rail- 
road Jerome" adhering to him. 

In 1884 the Republicans had a close call 
in the State against a combined opposition. 
Benjamin F. Butler was the candidate of 
the Greenback party for President, and 
under his advice the candidates for electors 
were proportioned to the Democrats and 
Greenbackers according tp their numbers. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



77 



thus forming but one electoral ticket. The 
combination on the State ticket was also com- 
plete, with Gov. Begole at the head. The 
Republican electoral ticket pulled through by 
the narrow margin of 3,308, with Gen. Alger 
a few votes short of 4,000 for Governor. A 
fusion was again effected in 1886, with Geo. 
L. Yaple as the candidate for Governor, 
against Cyrus G. Luce, the latter winning by 
7,432. The Greenback party from this time 
on seems to have disappeared, its elements to 
a greater or less extent being represented by 
the term "Union Labor" in 1888, with a vote 
of 4,388, by the term "Industriar' in 1890, 
with a vote of 13,198, by the term "Peo- 
ple's Party'' in 1892 and 1894, polling re- 
spectively 21,417 and 30,012. At the two 
elections, 1896 and 1898, this element in our 
party politics was merged with the Demo- 
crats under the title of the "Democratic-Peo- 
ple's-L'nion-Silver" ticket. 

In 1882 the Prohibition party was 
again in evidence, with a vote of 5,854, 
which reached 22,207 in 1884, 25,189 
in 1886, and 28,681 in 1890, the high- 



est reached at any time by that party. 
There was a factional division in the Prohi- 
bition ranks in 1896 not necessary to dwell 
upon. Other minor by-plays in the game of 
party politics must be passed over. 

The results that appear as the fruit of 
fusions or combinations between political par- 
ties and factions are suggestive. The plan 
failed in 1849, in the Whig-Free Soil cam- 
paign under Littlejohn as their candidate for 
Governor. It failed in 1862 under the guber- 
natorial candidacy of Byron G. Stout. It 
failed most disastrously in 1872 under the 
Greeley-Blair auspices. It failed at the judi- 
cial election in 1879. It was successful on 
the Governorship in 1882 from special causes, 
but failed as to everything else at that elec- 
tion. It failed in 1884, in 1886, and in 1888. 
The election of Gov. Winans in 1890 was a 
Democratic and not a fusion victory, due to 
special causes then existing. An analysis 
would also show the fusion successes at the 
spring elections in 1881 and 1885 as duo to 
special causes. It has achieved nothing in the 
elections of 1896 and 1898. 



THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 



Historical Reference — Local Option Laws — Prohibi- 
tion Laws — Non-license Clause of the Constitu- 
tion of 1850— The Taxation Law of 1875— Rate of 
the Tax Under Different Acts. 

Historically speaking, the sale and use of 
liquor was not regarded as an evil to be leg- 
islated against. The advocacy of temper- 
ance as a moral question is old enough, but 
the plan of enforcing temperance by legisla- 
tion as differing from other sunqituary laws, 
is of modem conception. Whence arose the 
custom of '^licensing'' the sale of liquor? may 
be asked. Equally pertinent would it be to 
ask whence arose the custom of licensing 
hawkers and peddlers, hacks and omnibuses. 
Our customs are inherited largely from Eng- 
land. Anciently the rights of overlordship 
there would permit or forbid the carrying on 
of any kind of traffic. Hence a permit or 
license had first to be procured. Inns or tav- 



erns bore a special relation to the State and 
to the public. They were held subject to the 
quartering of soldiers in times of public need. 
They were liable to harbor persons of bad 
character, and hence the need for their regu- 
lation and for their prohibition except upon 
permission given, and this permission was 
simply a license. The fee tO' be charged was 
an incidental matter, governed by varying 
considerations. As inns and taverns were 
vendors of liquors, the custom of requiring a 
license from all places wdiere liquors were sold 
arose naturally and logically. 

In the earlier days of the history of Michi- 
gan, the license system attained. The mu- 
nicipal authorities could grant or withhold a 
license and fix the amount to be paid where 
a license was granted. In many cases, espe- 
cially in the smaller towns, liquor was sold 
not only by taverns, but by stores and gro- 



78 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



ceries, openly and unreservedly, without 
license. Usually, in the smaller towns, when 
a license was granted, the fee was but nomi- 
nal, say two, three or five dollars. In Detroit 
the minimum fee was usually ten dollars, but 
ranging from that up to thirty or forty dol- 
lars, according to location and extent of busi- 
ness. 

During the 1840 decade legislation hostile 
to the traffic began to be demanded. In 1845 
a ^^local option'' law was passed, which pro- 
vided for a popular vote at the spring elec- 
tions in the cities, villages and townships, on 
the question of granting license during the 
year to ensue. As the majority voted, 
"license'' or "no license," so w^as it ordered for 
the year. This law died a natural death with 
the adoption of the constitution of 1850, 
which forbade the granting of license. Act 
197, Public Acts, 1887, was the "local op- 
tion" law of that year, made applicable to 
counties, to- be determined by popular vote. 
This act was held invalid by reason of defec- 
tive title, and inoperative for various reasons. 
But by Act 207, Public Acts, 1889, the same 
law was re-enacted with more elaborate pro- 
visions, which have been sustained by the 
courts. 

The constitution framed in 1850 (the same 
with numerous amendments now in force ) 
contained the following clause, which stood 
as Section 47 of Article 4: 

"The Legislature shall not pass any Act 
authorizing the grant of license for the sale 
of ardent spirits or other intoxicating liquors." 

This provision, while it remained in the 
constitution, wrought only mischief and em- 
barrassment. Just what the motive for its 
adoption was on the part of the convention 
which framed the constitution, it is difficult 
to determine from the debates, but in general 
it seems to have been the purpose to do away 
w^ith or prohibit any further legislation on the 
subject of the liquor traffic. The temperance 
people (many of them, at least), supposed 
that without license, liquor could not be sold 
at all, while those favorable to the traffic (if 
there were any ) concluded that if license was 



prohibited the traffic would be entirely free. 
Both labored under a delusion. Of course, 
with no law on the subject, the traffic would 
be free, but the temperance people, finding 
that no license meant free traffic, at once de- 
manded prohibition. 

The temperance agitation had in the early 
fifties taken the form of a demand for the so- 
called "Maine law," or prohibitory law. 
Such a law was enacted in 1853 and submitted 
to a vote of the people at a special election 
held in June of that year, to determine when 
the Act should take effect. It was approved 
by a majority of over 17,000 in a total vote 
of 6 e3, 503. It at first promised to be effective 
in stopping the traffic, but soon came to be 
disregarded. The constitutionality of the 
law was also attacked on the ground of its 
submission to popular vote. Another law was 
passed in 1855, w^hich stood the test of the 
courts, and remained on the statute books for 
twenty years, when, in 1875, the prohibition 
of license clause was stricken from the con- 
stitution. This law was repealed with the 
enactment of the taxation law in 1875. 

In the summer of 1874 a movement was 
made for the repeal of the prohibition law and 
the enactment of some law recognizing and 
regulating the traffic. Under the prohibition 
law, no property right existed in liquors. 
Should the manufacturer or wholesaler sell to 
the retailer, he could not collect the bill by 
law. So long as the retailer remained undis- 
turbed he paid his bills readily enough, but 
when prosecutions were sprung, the retailer 
found his ability to pay taken from him, and 
the wholesaler had necessarily to pocket the 
loss. To correct this evil was largely the im- 
pelling motive in the movement inaugurated 
in 1874. A State convention was held in 
August, and an organization formed under 
the style of the "Michigan License Associa- 
tion." This organization demanded the re- 
peal of the prohibition law and the enactment 
in its stead of a license or tax law. 

The liquor taxation law of 1875 was tJie 
result of a well settled conviction on the part 
of the people that something should be de- 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



79 



vised to take the place of the prohibitory^ plan. 
The movement nnder the head of the Michi- 
gan License Association had little to do in 
shaping public opinion. It did, hov^ever, 
present the subject as a formal issue before 
the people and the Legislature, and to that 
extent was influential in securing legislation. 
The principal legislation of 1875 was em- 
bodies in three acts: The taxation law, the 
police or regulation law, and an Act fixing 
penalties for the adulteration of liquors. The 
taxation policy has since been adhered to, but 
with many changes in the law which it would 
be impracticable tO' trace in this connection. 

The amount of liquor tax collected in the 
State in 1889 was $1,568,732, and in 1896 
$1,839,960, the increase being partly or 
wholly due to the raising of the beer tax to 
$500 by the Act of 1895. 

By the earlier legislation there was a grad- 



uated tax on the manufacture of beer, $65 
being the highest. The later legislation pro- 
vides a horizontal tax of $65^ regardless of 
the amount manufactured. By the present 
law, liquor and beer by retail are placed on 
the same footing. The wholesale liquor 
dealer is required to pay $300 additional, 
making $800 in all, if selling at retail. The 
payment of the liquor tax, both wholesale and 
retail, carries with it the right to sell beer 
also. 

The amount of the tax imposed from time 
to time appears from the annexed table : 





u 

o 

11 




11 


il 


i 


n'f 




Pi 


^ 


tf 


i^ 


$aoo 


S 


Act 228, Pub. Acts, IHTo. . . 


$150 


$300 


$40 


$100 




Act 197, Pub. Acts, 1877. 


150 


300 


50 


100 


300 




Act 268, Pub. Acts, 1879... 


200 


400 


65 


130 


400 




Act 156, Pub. Acts, 1881... 


300 


500 


200 


200 


500 




Act 313, Pub. Acts, 1887. . . 


500 


800 


300 


300 


800 


$65 


Act 93, Pub. Acts, 1895.. 


500 


500 


500 


500 


800 


65 



TABULAR EXHIBITS. 



state Institutions — ^Population — ^Equalized Valua- 
tion—State Taxes — Comparative Farm Statistics 
— Farm Products at Different Periods. 

STATE INSTITUTIONS. 

The character of the several State institu- 
tions will be sufficiently indicated by their 
titles. The figures given in the table as to 
the amount of appropriations and value of 
property are taken from the report of the 
Auditor General for 1898, pages viii and ix. 
In the list of appropriations for asylums for 
the insane there is an item of $179,906 
debited to "other asylums'' than those enu- 
merated. Omitting this item (which refers 
to maintenarice of State patients in private 
institutions ) gives a total of appropriations 
to all State institutions since the organization 
of the State government of $27,134,938. 
The total value of plant for all institutions is 
given on authority of the inventories at $9,- 
573,300, omitting in all cases fractional parts 
of the dollar — the sum total representing both 
buildings and grounds and equipment. 

The following table shows the several State 
institutions by classes, where located, the time 



of their organization, aggregate appropria- 
tions, and value of property: 



INSTITUTIONS. 


Where 
Located. 




Total of 

State 

appropria- 


Value of 
Property. 


Educational. 
University 


Ann Arbor 

Ypsilanti 

Mt. Pleasant. . . 

Marquette 

Lansing 

Houghton 

Flintt 

Lansing 

Cold water 

Lapeer 

Lansing 

Adrian 

Kalamazoo .... 

Pontiac 

Traverse City.. 
Newberry .... 
Ionia 


1837 
1849 
1895 
1899 
1855 
1886 

1854 
1881 
1871 

1895 

1855 
1879 

1849 

1877 
1885 
1894 
1885 

1839 
1877 
1885 

1885 


$3,604,504* 

1,89H,042* 

38,400 

35,000 

1,019,448* 

579,100 

2,265,772 

610,224 

1,101,476 

291,265 

1,974,246 
823,067 

4,041,177 

2,803,981 

2,284,542 

391,352 

645,888 

1,482,408 

1,486,170 

595,577 

1,200,397 


$1,928,430 
329,633 
43,102 

"416;947 
252,655 

522,281 
155,106 
245,825 

132,299 

285,953 
191,971 

1,063,804 
881,682 
787,498 
246.178 
205,937 

838,.574 
438,992 
256,992 

225,205 


Normal College 

Cen. Mich. Nor. Sch. 
Nor. State Nor. Sch. 

Agricultural Col 

College of Mines .... 

Educational and 
Beneficent. 

School for the Deaf.. 
School for the Blind. 
State Public School. 
Home for Feeble 
Minded 


Educational and 
Reformatory. 

Indus. School, boys. 
Indus. Home, girls.. 

Asylums for Insane. 

Michigan Asylum .. 

Eastern Asylum 

Northern Asylum.. . . 
Upper Penin. Asy . . . 
State Asylum 


Prisons and 
Reformatories. 

State Prison 

House Cor. and Ref . 


Jackson 

(onia 


Branch State Prison. 

Soldiers' Home. 
Mich. Soldiers' Home 


Marquette 

Grand Rapids. 



♦Exclusive of receipts from interest funds. See "Trust 
Funds." 

t Included also care of the blind up to 1831. 



80 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 



POPULATION. 

The population of Michigan up to 1840 is 

given on an earlier page. The population at 

each census period since 1840, as shown by 

both the United States and State census, was 

as following: 

U. S. census, 1850 397,654 

State census, 1854 507,521 

U. S. census, 1860 : 749,113 

State census, 1864 803,661 

U. S. census, 1870 1,184,282 

State census, 1874 1,334,031 

U. S. census, 1880 1,636,937 

State census, 1884 1,853,658 

U. S. census, 1890 2,093,889 

State census, 1894 2,241.611 

EQUALIZED VALUATION. 

In 1838 the total valuation of the taxable 
property of the State, as assessed by the as- 
sessors and equalized by the boards of super- 
visors of the several counties, was $42,953,- 
495. There was a steady diminution in 
amount, the total in 1847 being $27,617,240,- 
but increased to $29,384,270 in 1850. The 
constitution of 1850 required that the Legis- 
lature should provide for an equalization by a 
State board in the year 1851 and every fifth 
year. Pursuant to this requirement, the 
Lieutenant Governor, Auditor General, Sec- 
retary of State, State Treasurer, and Com- 
missioner of the Land Office were made to 
constitute such board. They meet at Lansing 
on the 'third Monday of August of every 
fifth year, counting from 1851. Their duties 
are to equalize the assessed valuation of the 
counties for the purpose of apportioning State 
taxes. If they think that the valuation of 
any county is too low, they add to it, and vice 
versa. Their equalization for each quin- 
quennial period has been as follows, includ- 
ing both real and personal property : 

1876 $630 000,000 

1881 810,000,000 

1886 945,450,000 

1891 1,130,000,000 

1896 1,105,100,000 



1851 $30,976,270 

1856 137,663,009 

1861 ...... 172,055,808 

1866 307,965,842 

1871 630,000,000 

STATE TAXES. 

"The amount of the State tax levied each 
year since the organization of the State gov- 
ernment is given on pages 438-41 of the re- 
port of the Auditor General for the year 
1898. The amount in 1838 was $85,906, 



running down to $69,043 in 1847. In 1853 
it was but $10,000, due to a divided surplus 
made tO' the States by the general govern- 
ment. The highest tax levy in. the history of 
the State was in 1897— $3,379,907. The 
lowest rate of taxation (mills on the dollar ), 
was in 1853, being .083. The highest rate 
was in 1848 — 5.039. The lowest per capita 
noted was 2c in 1860, and the highest $1.34 
in 1895. 

COMPARATIVE FARM STATIiSTrCS 

The following figures are compiled from 
the TJ. S. census reports up to 1890 and from 
the State census reports of 1894: 



Year. 


No. of 
Farms. 

34,089 
62,432 
98,786 
154,008 
17-^.344 
178,051 


No. acres in 
farms. 


No. acres 
improved. 


Value of farm 
products. 


1850 
1860 


4.383,890 
7,030,831 
10.019,142 
13,807,240 
14 785,686 
15,296,078 


1,929,110 
3,476,296 
5,096,939 
8,296.862 
9,865,350 
10 379.515 




1870 
1880 
1890 
1894 


$81,508,623 
91,159,858 
83,651,390 
81,279,006 



FARM PRODUCTS AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 

The annexed table of farm products for 
five census periods is compiled from the State 
census reports. The live stock will be under- 
stood to» be the number reported for the cen- 
sus year, while grain/ wool, etc., are for the 
year preceding: 



wmmo 

(t ct e CD 

§3 If 



d S 



i=i O P S.O P 

o! a> o ^ I I 

' d '"^ CD I 'd o 
d a c JL o P 

S.B £» § d o 
■ •^P- c 3 a> : 



p p d 

i p cf 

^05 - 



a <ti (0 (X> 
I P P P 

§TTT 

^ P CTP 

(^ ^ s 2 

cc CD !/3 2 

2^*^P 
^'$B*^ p !2 
c 22. «> S- ;S 

%U 

. c. : 

. d • 



JO lO -^ i_» "oi'?©' OS *>."eo "os OS "^ *t 



• ~0 00 10 to >-*~O^t0 0D''o O *»■ OSQC 



5^0 — OS— tt^c 



I •^1 «0 to 't^ to Q 



n coo 050 50 



os«D«o*>'ioi-^a. (i^os-o— "^^os :t-i«ctocc*i. 



*c to t—oscnioo '^ 01-* 

^^P^P S'^^S^^P S ~* ^ cji "^i^ 

— 05 -ii>i.*«.0*»'03.^'-'OS03 
5O^C0►-*^O-^icD-<^0C^l0~5OT 



^p6 



tOtOj-i 

W tO"p 03 
gs OS i6^ — 
cSioo»to 

"L. Ot-*M'00'tOSOCniO. 03 or OS ^ 00 ^ "" '— f'' 

^22g8^is§:ioi^^§§:::^SoSS?§ 



oos • 



Men of Progress 

Biographical Sketches 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



83 



EOGEKS, COLONEL JOSEPH SUM- 
NER. Joseph Sumner Rogers was born at 
Orrington, Maine, on the 5th of July, 1844. 
On his father's side he is descended from 
Thomas Rogers, one of the Mayflower pil- 
grims; on his mother's side he is the great- 
grandson of Peter Harriman, a veteran of 
the Revolntion. 

At the age of 16 yonng Rogers entered 
upon a military career which had for difl^er- 
ent chapters in its history service on the 
bloody fields of the Civil War, duty in Louisi- 
ana during reconstruction days, and finally 
the organization of a famous academy and 
military school. In April of '61, on Lin- 
coln's first call for troops, he left school to 
enlist in the Second Maine Infantry — the 
first infantry to leave the State for the front. 
After a year's service he was severely 
wounded at second Bull Run, but as soon as 
he recovered from his wound he joined his 
regiment and served until honorably dis- 
charged at the expiration of his term of en- 
listment. In September of '64 he re-enlisted, 
becoming second lieutenant of the Thirty- 
first Maine, and in October of the same year 
he became a captain of the Thirty-first. Cap- 
tain Rogers served during the final campaign 
of Peterslnirg and in the pursuit of Lee up to 
his surrender at Appomattox. At the end 
of the war he was mustered out, and subse- 
quently was breveted a major for gallantry 
in action. 

After the war. Major Rogers served in the 
War Deparrment for one year. In October 
of 1867 he became a second lieutenant in the 
First Infantry, United States army, and was 
ordered to Louisiana, where he served for 
several years through the exciting era of re- 
construction. 

In 1874, while stationed at Fort Wayne, 
Detroit, he was detailed by the President as 
professor of military science and tactics at 
the Detroit high school. Here his corps of 
young men, known as the Detroit Cadets, be- 
came famous as a military organization. It 
was while in charge of this battalion that 
Major Rogers formed the plan of organizing 




COL. JOSEPH SUMNER ROGERS. 

a school, patterned in academic features after 
the best academies, and in military discipline 
and administration after West Point. In 
September, 1877, the idea was realized, and 
the Michigan Military Academy began its 
long term of service and usefulness. 

Today the academy is known throughout 
the nation. From a small beginning, the 
scliool has developed until it possesses a plant 
and equipment not equaled by that of many 
colleges. It draws students from every state 
in the Union. All this work has been accom- 
plished without endowment. 

In Se|)tember, 1866, Colonel Rogers mar- 
ried Miss Susan J. Wheeler, and three chil- 
dren have been born to them. Harry L. 
l^ogers is paymaster in the regular army with 
the rank of major. Florence, the only daugh- 
ter, died several years ago. Frederick P. 
Roo:ers is a student in the academy. 

Colonel Rogers is a member of the F. A. 
M. and Detroit Commandery, K. T. ; the 
Loyal Legion; the Detroit Post, G. A. R., at 
Detroit; the Sons of the American Revolu- 
tion; the Mayflower Society, and the Order 
of the Descendants of Colonial Governors. 



84 



MEIsT OF PKOGKESS. 




WIJLLARD K. BUSH. 

EUSII, WILLARD K. Willard K. Bush 
was born in Tonia, Micliigan, May 20, 1867. 
liate in the fall of the same year, his father, 
H. F. Bush, renioved to Gaines, Micliigan, 
engaging in a general inercliandise business, 
and the mamifaeture of staves, heading, l)ar- 
rels and hardwood lund:>er. The boyhood 
days of Willard K. were spent in the public 
schools of Gaines and Detroit, Michigan. 
Young Bush was not infatuated with school 
and his absence was noted by the teacher fre- 
quently din-ing the term. His fatlier at last 
determined to give the lad a taste of work, to 
see if it would not give him a better appetite 
for school. It did, and at the age of 17 
he entered the Fenton Normal College, at 
Fenton, Michigan, graduating in the com- 
mercial course, afterward taking up stenog- 
raphy and becoming so proficient in the art 
that he became a teacher of it. 

In the spring of 1887, he entered the em- 
ployment of The G. II. Hammond Co., De- 
troit, as stenographer. After remaining with 



this company two years, he accepted a sim- 
ilar position with Armour & Co., of Chicago, 
and remained with that firm for. one year, 
resigning when he found a more remunera- 
tive position as stenographer to the auditor 
of the AVisconsin Central Eailroad Company, 
Chicago, and one year later accepted a similar 
position with the Michigan Central Railroad, 
at Detroit, resigning two years later to accept 
the appointment of stenographer to Hon. 
Hazen S. Pingree, then Mayor of Detroit. 
After five years of service as private sec- 
retary to Hon. Hazen S. Pingree (w^hile 
mayor and during his first term as Gov- 
ernor of Michigan), he resigned to accept 
his present position, deputy secretary of 
state, under Hon. Justus S. Stearns, sec- 
retary of state. During the State election 
of 1898, Mr. Bush had personal charge of the 
campaign of Mr. Stearns, in w^hich task he 
won deserved laurels. This latter appoint- 
ment was given to him as a matter of recog- 
nition and reward for his efforts in behalf of 
the nomination and election of his chief, for 
Avliom he was the earliest and one of the most 
zealous champions. 

In 1889, Mr. Bush married Miss Helena B. 
Salsbury, of Fenton, Michigan. They have 
one child, a daughter, Mildred, who is now 
eight years old. 

On January 1, 1897, when he became sec- 
retary to the Governor, he w^as also made 
military secretary with rank of major. 

On March 1, 1900, Mr. Bush engaged in 
business under the name of The Willard K. 
Bush Company, manufacturers of overalls, 
pants, shirts, duck coats and special garments 
to order. The business w^as launched under 
most favorable auspices and gives promise of 
continued growth and prosperity. 

He is a member of Lansing Lodge No. 33, 
F. & A. M. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



CAHILL, EDWAKD. Edward Caliill 
was born at Kalamazoo^ Michigan, August 3, 
1843, being the second in a family of six 
children. His father, Abraham Cahill, was a 
tanner, and settled in Kalamazoo in 1831. 
PI is mother was Frances Maria Marsh, niece 
of Epaphroditus Kansom, an early judge of 
the Supreme Court and governor of Michigan 
from 1848 until 1850. 

The father sold the tannery and moved to 
a farm on Grand Prairie, where young Cahill 
remained until 11 years of age, attending the 
district schools. In 1854 the family removed 
to Holland, Michigan, where the elder Cahill 
invested his means in wild lands and engaged 
in lumbering. He died that same year, leav- 
ing the family without income or available 
means of support. H he had lived, good use 
could have been made of his wild land, 
though it was useless to a widow with a family 
of young children. The mother returned to 
Kalamazoo and managed to keep her children 
in school, and in the fall of 1856 Edward en- 
tered the preparatory department of Kalama- 
zoo College, where he remained tliree years. 

The next two years he was an apprentice in 
the printing office of the Kalamazoo Gazette. 
In August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in 
Company A, Eighty-ninth Illinois infantry, 
and was sent to the front immediately. After 
service in the Kentucky campaign in the fall, 
under Gen. Buell, he was discharged Decem- 
ber, 18()2, on account of disability occasioned 
by illness. Eeturning to Kalamazoo, he began 
the study of law in the office of Miller & 
Burns, of that city, but his health improving, 
in 1863 he decided to go to the front again. 
He recruited and was made first lieutenant of 
a company of colored soldiers for the First 
Michigan Colored Infantry, afterwards 
known as the One Hundred and Second 
United States Infantry. He was subse- 
quently promoted to captain, and served as 
such until the close of the war. Captain Cahill 
mustered out in 1865, when, returning home, 
he resumed his law studies at St. Johns, Mich- 
igan, and was admitted to the bar in June, 
1866. He began his practice at Ilubbards- 




EDW^ARD CAHILL. 

ton, Michigan, wliere he remained four years 
and until lie removed to Ionia in 1870. In 
1871 he weut to (^hieago and estal)lished a 
gC'od practice. In 1873, while on a visit to 
friends in Lansing, he was ])ersuaded to locate 
there, and that has ever since been his home. 
He was elected ])i"osecuting attorney of Ing- 
ham county, 1876-1880. In 1887 lie was 
a])pointed a member of the board of pardons 
by (iov. Luce, a position he held until he Avas 
a]^poiiited juhtice of the Su])renie Court, upon 
tlie death of Judge (\nn])bell, in 1890. 

Judge (^ahill was president of the State 
Bar Association in 1891-92, and was first 
president of the ]\lichigan Political Science 
Association, Avliich was organized in 1892. 

On June 11, 1867, Judge Cahill was mar- 
ried at Milford, Oakland county, Michigan, to 
Miss Lucy Crawford, the daughter of Hender- 
son CraAvford, wlio, from 1850 to 1865, Avas a 
Avell-known teacher, having an academy Avhere 
some of tlie best men in Michigan received 
their education, among others Hon. John 
]\Ioore and AV. L. Webber, of SaginaAv, elus- 
tice Moore, of the Supreme Court, and a large 
number of others less Avidely known. 

Judge Cahill has two daugliters, both of 
Avhom are married. 



86 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




WILLIAM EVANS GROVE. 

GROVE, WILLIAM EVANS. A name 
well known in Michigan is that of Judge 
William E. Grove, of Grand Eapids. He 
Avas born at Geneva, N. Y., November 22, 
1833, being now in his sixty-seventh year, and 
received his early education at that place, but 
graduated from Ilobart College, then a Free 
Episcopal institution, in 1858. On his fath- 
er's side he w^as of German descent and with 
an admixture of Irish, through his mother, 
Euth Fulton. His great-grandfather was a 
(lerman military officer who fled the country 
because of political troubles, settling in Penn- 
sylvania. His father, Martin Grove, removed 
to Geneva from York County, Pennsylvania. 
Judge Grove was attracted to Grand Eapids, 
soon after his graduation, Iw reason of having 
a brother practicing medicine there, with 
whom he studied medicine for about six 
months. But feeling more affinity for Black- 
stone than for Galen, he turned from medi- 
cine to the law and began reading with 
Holmes & Eobinson, attorneys, of Grand 
Eapids, and was admitted to practice before 
Judge Louis S. Lovell, March 14, 1859. He 
opened an office and pursued his first year's 
practice wdth an income of $75. In 1860 he 



was elected justice of the peace, and two years 
later formed a law^ partnership with John T. 
Holmes. In 1866 he removed to Ilumbolt, 
Kansas, practicing there for a year, and then 
went to Keosba Falls, the county seat of 
AVoodson county, same state, remaining until 
1872 and building up an extensive and lucra- 
tive practice there. While there he served 
four years as prosecuting attorney of the 
county, lliere were no railroads at that time 
and the practice involved journeys of from 75 
to 100 miles on horseback, to attend the court 
sessions, and becoming tired of this frontier 
life, he returned to Grand Eapids in 1872. 
Resuming practice there alone, until 1876, he 
was subsequently associated successively with 
(ieorge W. Thompson, Judge John M. Har- 
ris and John S. Lawrence. Judge E. M. 
Montgomery, then presiding judge of the 
Kent Circuit, having been elected to the Su- 
preme bench, Mr. Grove was appointed and 
subsequently elected to succeed him, and in 
1893 was renominated by the Eepublicans for 
the full term of six years, beginning January, 
1894, and was endorsed by the other parties 
and re-elected without opposition. During 
his service on the Kent bench, he was assigned 
to and held court for several terms in the 
Wayne circuit, and is known throughout the 
State as an able and impartial jurist. Since 
retiring from the bench, in January, 1900, he 
lias resumed practice in Grand Eapids, giving 
special attention to corporation and insurance 
law. He is in politics a Republican, as will 
be readily inferred. 

Judge Grove's religious connection is 
MethoSist-Episcopal, he being a member of 
Division Street M. E. Church in Grand Eap- 
ids. Literary and social connections are: 
Alpha Delta Phi (Collegiate), Masonic, Odd- 
fellows, Peninsular Club and Lincoln Eepub- 
lican Club of Grand Eapids. He is a mem- 
ber of the Michigan Bar Association and was 
one of the originators and organizers of the 
State Association of Circuit Judges, and was 
its president for one year. Mrs. Grove, to 
whom he was married in 1884, was formerly 
Miss Jennie Caswell, daughter of Zebina Cas- 
well, of Kingston, 'N. Y. They have a son 
and a daughter, William M. and Caroline 
Euth. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



87 



CLARKE, WILLIAM EADCLIFFE. 

Attorney William Eadcliffe Clarke, of 
Grand Ledge, Michigan, is the son of Thomas 
Clarke, who came from the Isle of Man in 
1888 and was a farmer near Watford, On- 
tario. His mother's maiden name was Jane 
EadcliiTe. Mr. Clarke w^as born in Spriiig- 
lield, Ontario, October 24, 1860. He at- 
tended the public schools from the time he 
was six years of age nntil his seventeenth 
year, and ^^^orked as a farm hand during the 
vacation months. He then became a clerk 
in a grocery store at $7 a month, and after 
twenty months clerking saved $100, which 
enabled him to enter the St. Thomas Colle- 
giate Institute for one year. He invested his 
money in some young cattle and the proceeds 
took him through the course at the institute. 
He intended to become a physician, but was 
disheartened by the prospects afforded to a 
youthful physician in Canada, so he decided 
to take up law, and visiting relatives in Grand 
Ledge in 1881, he entered the Law depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan in the 
fall of that year and graduated from there 
in 1883. 

Not having sufficient money to establish 
himself in practice and being in debt for his 
education, he entered the employ of the E. 
L. Polk Co., of Detroit, publishers of direc- 
tories and gazetteers, visiting nearly all the 
large cities north of the Ohio, and remaining 
in their employ until 1886. . He then en- 
tered into partnership with ex-Senator Jacob 
L. McPeek, at Grand Ledge, under the firm 
name of McPeek & Clarke, and commenced 
an extensive and successful practice. The 
partnership continued five years, when Mr. 
McPeek was elected Judge of Probate. Con- 
tinuing alone until 1897, Mr. Clarke admit- 
ted a partner in that year, K. A. Latting, and 
Clarke & Latting still conduct a lucrative 
practice at Grand Ledge. 

Mr. Clarke married Miss Iva J. Graves, 
of Springfield, Ontario, in 1886, and has two 
children, Ross D., aged nine, and Pauline, 
aged seven. 

Mr. Clarke is one of the most popular Re- 




WILLIAM RADCLIPFE CLARKE. 

publicans in his county. He was city attor- 
ney at Grand Ledge for eight years and a 
uj ember of the board of aldermen three years. 
His name has been suggested for Judge of 
Probate on several occasions. In 1894 the 
Granger hardware stock w^as for sale, and 
Mr. Clarke, looking for a place to invest his 
money, formed a co-partnership w4th A. E. 
Kiser and purchased it, and the Clarke Hard- 
ware Co., of Grand Ledge, has the largest 
store of its kind in that city. The success of 
the company has been due mainly to Mr. 
Clarke's hard work and good business prin- 
ciples. He is honest and fair in his methods 
of doing business and this fact has been rec- 
ognized by all who have had dealings with 
him, both in his profession as a lawyer and 
as a merchant. He is also vice-president of 
the Grand Ledge Canning & Preserving Co., 
an industry employing many people and 
shipping goods all over the United States. 

Mr. Clarke owns one of the largest law 
libraries in the country, most of the volumes 
being text books. He still continues to prac- 
tice law, his ability and integrity having been 
rewarded with a large clientage. 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




ALFRED JAMES MILLS. 

MILLS, ALEEED JAMES. Mr. Mills is 
of Eiiglisli origin, his father, Alfred Mills, 
iiaving l)eeii a drv goods iiierchaiit in the 
towns of liedford, in Bedfordshire, and 
S])alding, in lineohisliire. Alfred eL was 
born in 1852, and attended school nntil his 
sixteenth year, when he came to America, ar- 
ri\dng in Kalamazoo (^arly in 1870, where lie 
fon.nd a position in a (h'lig store, which he 
filled for a few months, lie then entered the 
law^ office of Artluir Brown, then a well- 
knowMi attorney of Kalamazoo, where he read 
law for fonr years, and was admittcnl to tlie 
bar. EeinoAdiig to I^aw^ ]^aw, he formed a 
co-partnership Avith (/handler Richards, under 
the firm name of Eichards & Mills, the con- 
nection continniiig for several years. In 
187G Mr. Mills was elected Judge of l^rol)ate 
for Van Bnren county, and was nnanimonsly 
and by acclamation renominated for the same 
office in 1880, bnt declined the honor. In 
1881 he was elected judge of tlie l^Tinth Jndi- 
cial Gircnit, comprising the connties of Kala- 
mazoo and Van Bnren, and in the early part 
of his term removed to Kalamazoo.. Before 
the expiration of his term, however, he an- 
nounced that he wxndd not be a candidate for 
renomination, and at the close of his term re- 



tnrned to the practice of law at the city of 
Kalamazoo, forming a co-partnership with J. 
W. Osborn, the firm being Osborn & Mills. 

In 1883 he Avas chosen a member of the 
Board of Edncation of Kalamazoo, serving in 
that capacity for six ^^ears, and Avas its presi- 
dent dnring two years of the time. He was 
a])pointed a mend)er of the Board of Trnstees 
of the Michigan Asylnm for the Insane, at 
Kalamazoo, by Gov. Eich, serving nntil the 
s])ring of 1899, and Avas president of the 
board dnring nearly tAVO years of his term, 
lie Avas reappointed a member of the board 
by Oov. Pingree in Jannary, 1900. At the 
s])ring election of 1900 lie Avas elected mayor 
of tlie city of Jvalamazoo. He Avas appointed 
l)y tlie Superintendent of Public Instrnctions 
in the fall of 1899 as cliairinan of the Board 
of Visitors to the Michigan State Medical Col- 
leges. He is a trnstee of tlie Michigan Ee- 
male Seminary and clerk of that l)oard. He 
is a director in the Pnritan Corset Co. and the 
C. 11. Dntton Boiler (Jo., of Kalamazoo. 

His religions connections are Episcopalian, 
he having been a mend)er of the A^estry of St. 
[jTike's E])iscopal Clinrch for many years. Po- 
litically, he has always voted the Eepnblican 
ticket. He is a meml)er of the Masonic Era- 
ternity, inclnding the Knights Templar, and 
of the Knights of Pythias and Elks. 

Miss Elorence Batch, danghter of Lnther 
Balch, of Porter, Mich., became Mrs. Mills in 
Jnne, 1874, fonr children being tlie frnit of 
the marriage — Mrs. (J. E. (Jole, of Kalama- 
zoo, and Mabel C., James A. and Helen resid- 
ing Avitli their parents. 

Jndge Mills is a hard-AVorking, enterprising 
man, conscientions both in opinion and action, 
a close stndent, of qnick perception and a man 
in CA^ery Avay Avortliily representing the intel- 
ligent and cnltnred commnnity in Avliich his 
lot is cast. And this reference to the people 
and city of Kalamazoo recalls an incident 
Avhicli Avas once related in the hearing of the 
writer by the late Jndge AVells, of Kalamazoo, 
and Avith Avhicli the sketch may be appropri- 
ately l)ronglit to a close. In the presidential 
campaign of 1856, Mr. Lincoln, avIio fonr 
years later Avas elected to tlie presidency, Avas 
one of the speakers at a Eepnblican mass 
meeting at Kalamazoo. Eemarking npon 
the character of liis andience, Avhich presnin- 
ably (externally at least) outranked that of 
audiences to Avhich Mr. Lincoln had been ac- 
cnstomed to speak, ^^AVhy,'' said he to Judge 
W., '^they all had clean shirts on.'' 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



89 



WRIGHT, AMMI WILLAED. A na- 
tive of Vennont, Mr. Wright justly regards 
with pride and satisfaction his New England 
parentage, and exemplifies in his life the love 
of freedom, tlie independence of character, 
the stern virtues of patriotism and obedience 
to law and authority, that are the ruling traits 
of the people who have so largely given tone 
to the social and civil institutions of the coim- 
try. Born at Orafton, Vt., July 5, 1822, but 
removing with liis fanuly at an early age to 
Kockingham, in the same State, his early edu- 
cation was confined to the district school. At 
the age of 17 he quitted school, spending the 
next three years in farm work. A year of 
business experience in the city of Boston fol- 
lowed. For tv/o years following lie engaged 
in the carrying trade between Kutland, Vt., 
and Boston, taking produce from the country 
to the city and bringing back supplies for the 
local merchants. He next managed a hotel 
in Bartonsville, Vt., for the proprietor, Jere- 
miali Barton, and in 181:8 married the daugh- 
ter of his employer. Miss Harriet Barton, and 
leased his hotel. A year later he became pro- 
prietor of the Central Hotel in Boston, but 
came to Michigan in 1850, and in 1851 
located in Saginaw, interesting himself in the 
lumber and tind)er trade. He first engaged 
in cutting and running logs, Avhich he sold to 
the mills. In 1859 he became junior mem- 
ber of the firm of Miller, Payne & AV right, 
who bought what was known as the ^^Big 
MilF' in Saginaw, refitted it and engaged in 
manufacturing. It would be impracticable 
to trace the various co-partnership enterprises 
in which Mr. Wright was successively (and 
always successfully) engaged. In 1871 he 
extended his operations by establishing the 
lumber firm of Wright, Wells & Co., at 
Wright's Lake, in Otsego county. A lum- 
bermen's wholesale supply store at Saginaw, 
established in 1867 by '^Messrs. Wright & 
Pearson, was one of his varied enterprises. 
The purchase of 30,000 acres of pine land in 
Roscommon, Gladwin and Clare counties 
grew out of the last named coiniection, with 
some changes in the personnel of the firm. 
They established a lumbering plant, built 32 
miles of railroad, and cultivated a farm of 
1,000 acres. In 1882 the A. W. Wright 





. ~^ '-->-^;-:,W-;^^ 




■;■ . ; -.^ 


^%SMs^~,.^, 




. ' ' :'M 


%:--•-•., OT 




' ' flHl 


^^Ki^^ "'-■■"i ''Mk 




';'•■■ ';:-H| 


w^K^^M^'^i 




Mb 


^^wi 




Kb 




Sfe 






^^^M 








' '^^^^^ 


^^■■^ j^^^A' --'l 


^^■j:;' 


'^^^^^^^^■M 


Sk' ^^ggMfP''^ ^^^^^'^m 


^^^^^^mp':'- 








■ 


9 


H^^^^^^^: \ ' 


^^^H^R 


^■H^^^^^P 


B^^'" 



AMMI WILLARD WRIGHT. 

Lumber (^o. was incorporated, with a capital 
of $1,500,000, with Mr. Wright as its presi- 
dent. This couipany absorbed most of the 
large concerns in which Mr. Wright w^as in- 
terested. 

Led by his tastes, early in his Michigan ac- 
tivities, he cultivated a large farm in Genesee 
county. At present he has extensive grazing 
lands in Texas, Dakota and Montana, and a 
farui of 2,500 acres near tlie village of Alma, 
which village is sidjstantially a creation of Mr. 
Wright's. And here, by his foresight and 
open hand have been located a large beet 
sugar refinery, the Alma Sanitarium — a fa- 
vorite resort for health and rest — and Alma 
College, Avliich is. rapidly rising to prominence 
among the educational institutions of the 
State! 

His genius contril)uted to the building of 
the Saginaw and St. Louis plank road and the 
Saginaw Valley & St. Louis Eailroad. He 
has many banking and manufacturing inter- 
ests in Michigan, Minnesota and New York 
State. 

While Mr. Wright's business aptitude pre- 
sents liis stronger points, he is at the same 
time kind, benevolent and philanthropic and 
is loved and honored by his business asso- 
ciates, and especially by his employes and 
those who may be regarded as in some meas- 
ure his dependents. 



90 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




COI.. JAMES NYE COX. 

COX, COL. JAMES KYE. Our recent 
war with Spain brought out the military capa- 
bilities of the men connected with the State 
Militia of Michigan, and made prominent 
many of those men who have been identified 
with State military organizations, better than 
any other medium could have done. 

When the Michigan troops were mobilized 
at Island Lake in 1898, the work was accom- 
plished in an excellent manner by Michigan 
officers, and Col. James ISlje Cox, under Gen. 
Irish, was one of the officers who assisted in 
forming the Michigan regiments and prepar- 
ing them for the part they took in the war 
with Spain. 

The Cox family came from England with 
one Gresham Cox, and James V. Cox, the 
father of the subject of this sketch, was a sea 
captain, engaged in whale fishing. 

James Wye Cox was born at Fairhaven, 
Mass., April 10, 1844. His mother was Mercy 
'Nje Howland, a descendant of the old Massa- 
chusetts family of ISTyes. Young Cox at- 
tended the schools of his native town and 
afterwards the Wesleyan Seminary at Kent's 



Hill, Maine, where he remained until he was 
almost 18 years of age, and then when, in 
1862, Lincoln called for ^^300,000 more,'' he 
enlisted in Jidy in the Third Massachusetts 
Regiment, Co. I, and was made corporal 
shortly after joining the regiment. The Third 
Massachusetts was assigned to the Eighteenth 
Army Corps, and saw active service in the 
Carolinas. Nine months after his enlistment 
Mr. Cox was made second lieutenant in Co. 
Gr, Fifty-eighth Massachusetts, and assigned 
to the Army of the Potomac, First Brigade, 
Second Division, l^intli Army Corps. He 
served until the close of the war, participating 
in many of the brilliant but fierce engage- 
ments in which the Army of the Potomac fig- 
ured so prominently. Lieut. Cox was se- 
verely wounded at Cold Harbor and again at 
Petersburg, and when his regiment was mus- 
tered out he was first lieutenant and adjutant 
of his regiment. For five years after the war 
he was connected with the wholesale tobacco 
trade, working for a firm in New York city 
and traveling most of the time on the road 
as a salesman in New York and New England 
States. In 1870 he was tendered and ac- 
cepted the position of junior clerk in the office 
of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., and in 
1888 was made clerk of the mine, a position 
which he still occupies. In 1881 he helped 
organize the Calumet Light Guard and served 
as first lieutenant. Lieut. Cox was appointed 
colonel and aide-de-camp on the staff of Gov. 
Alger, and later Gov. Luce appointed him on 
his staff, where he served during the foiir 
years of his administration. He was made 
assistant inspector-general on Brig. -Gen. 
Lyon's staff in 1897, and is still in that posi- 
tion. Col. Cox is a member of the G. A. K. 
and of the Loyal Legion, Michigan Com- 
mandery. He has taken much of the honors 
of Masonry, including the Knights Templar, 
and belongs to Montrose Commandery of Cal- 
umet, and is a Shriner of Ahmed Temple in 
Marquette. 

He married in 1879 Miss Edith L, daugh- 
ter of Frederick Mackenzie, of Calumet. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



91 



PARSOIS^S, JAMES M. If our men of 
middle age and younger may be termed men 
of progress, those who have progressed to 
four score and ten certainly should be. This 
remark is applicable to Mr. Parsons, who is 
in his ninety-first year, and has been a resident 
of Marshall for sixty-six years. Born at West 
Springfield, Mass., February 23d, 1810, of 
farmer parents, he alternated his attendance 
upon the district school with farm work until 
fifteen years of age, when under an uncle's 
care he went to Lowville, N^. Y., where he 
attended the Lowville Academy, and was a 
clerk in his uncle's store for six years. He 
then went to Auburn, N^. Y., where he was 
clerk in a general store for a year. Coming 
to Sandusky, O., in the spring of 1834, he 
took boat from there to Detroit. After a 
short stop there he went to Ann Arbor by 
stage, and from there on horseback to Mar- 
shall, having less than twenty dollars in his 
pocket. He soon secured a situation in a 
store at Homer, where he remained about a 
year, having saved during the time some 
$300. Going then to Marshall, he opened a 
general store, which he conducted success- 
fully for six years. He "whooped it up" for 
Harrison and Tyler during the memorable 
log cabin and hard cider campaign of 1840, 
but with tlie hard cider left out, as there were 
no apples in the locality to make cider from. 
He was appointed postmaster at Marshall in 
1841, wdiich place he held for four years. At 
the close of his official service he accepted a 
clerkship in Charles P. Dibble's dry goods 
store, where he remained nineteen years. He 
then opened a boot and shoe store on his own 
account, which he conducted successfully for 
twelve years. He then associated himself with 
D. S. Beach in the fire insurance business, 
which he has continued personally since the 
death of Mr. Beach, in 1890, and still con- 
tinues. 

It will thus be seen that Mr. Parsons has 
been an active business man at Marshall since 
1834, a period of sixty-six years. In his busi- 
ness relations he is identified with the Royal 
Cycle Company, of Marshall, is a director in 




JAMi-S M. PAliSONS. 

the Commercial Bank, also at Marshall, and 
a stockholder in the Parsons Paper Company 
at Holyoke, Mass. He was village clerk of 
Marshall for many years before that town 
became a city. His religious connection is 
Episcopalian, dating from 1863, when he 
united with Trinity Cliurch of Marshall. He 
was made clerk of the vestry in 1864 and has 
held the position ever since, and is also senior 
warden of the church. He has been an Odd- 
fellow fifty-seven years ; was formerly a Whig 
in politics, but lias since been a Republican. 
He has never used tobacco or liquor, his health 
has always been good, and he is today a re- 
markably well preserved, bright, active and 
courteous gentleman, which it does one good 
to meet. Mr. Parsons's domestic life, though 
less in point of years than his business life, yet 
greatly exceeded the average. Married in 
1836 to Miss Eleanor Dorsey, daughter of 
Andrew Dorsey, of Lyons, IST. Y., they cele- 
brated their golden wedding in 1886. Mrs. 
Parsons died in 1890. A daughter, Sarah, 
who was for twelve years a teacher and six 
years matron in the State Public School at 
Coldwater, and is now keeping house for the 
father, is, aside from the father, the only re- 
maining representative of the family. 



92 



MET^ OF PEOQEESS. 




HON. JAMES SCULLY. 

SCULLY, KOW. JAMES. Hon. James 
Scully is classed as the leader in the Llonse 
of Eepresentatives of the Democrats this 
session of 1899, and is one of the best and 
most forcible orators of that body. 

He was born in Osceola township, Living- 
ston county, Michigan, June 13, 1862. His 
father was a farmer and the boy, as soon as 
he was able to work, helped in the work- 
ing of the farm and assisted his mother at 
her churning. He attended the district 
schools during the winter months, working in 
the summers, and later supplemented his dis- 
trict school education by courses at the Fen- 
ton Normal School and the high school at 
Howell, Michigan. Obtaining a teacher's 
certificate at an examination, he became a 
school teacher, teaching for five winters in 
Livingston county, and farming in the sum- 
mer. He then accepted a school in Cheboy- 
gan, Michigan, and while in that city con- 
ceived the idea of becoming a lawyer. He 
commenced the study of law and while pre- 
paring for admission to the bar, taught school 
in order to pay his expenses. He read law 
in the office of Frank Gaffoney, at Ionia, 



and later with Ellis and Miller, at Ionia. 
After his admission to the bar at Ionia, May 
17, 1890, he worked by the month for a time 
and at last entered into partnership with J. 
B. Chaddock, under the firm name of Chad- 
dock & Scully, and since that time the firm 
has become one of the strongest law firms in 
the city of Ionia. 

In his politics, Mr. Scully is, and has 
always been,. a Democrat. Lie acted as clerk 
under Attorney-General Ellis at one time, 
and in 1884-1885 was township clerk for 
Osceola township, Livingston county. This 
was his first political office. During the 
years of 1892, 1893, 1894 he was city attor- 
ney for Ionia, and for several years a member 
of and chairman of the Democratic City Com- 
mittee. He was elected to the Michigan 
Legislature in 1896 and served through the 
term of 1897-1898 to the entire satisfaction 
of his supporters. He was re-elected to the 
house of 1898-1899 by a vote of 2,215 to 
2,156 for John D. Dougherty, Eepublican. 
Mr. Scully was the only successful Democrat 
on the ticket in Ionia county. 

Mr. Scully is justly proud of his work in 
building his own life, for he has never been 
ashamed to turn his hand to any kind of 
manual labor, and feels that he has attained 
his present position through his own efforts. 
He is not the only one in his family that has 
taken a part in the history of this state, for 
Iiis mother's father, James Gleason, was a 
member of the Michigan Legislatures of 
1853-1854. The elder Scully came to this 
country from Ireland and was one of the 
early settlers in Michigan, taking up the tract 
of ground where his son was born and clear- 
ing it himself for farming purposes. 

James Scully is a member of the Ancient 
Order of Hibernians and the Modern Wood- 
men, both of Ionia, Michigan, and also a 
member of St. Peter and Paul's Catholic 
Church of Ionia. 

He is looked upon with respect in the house 
as a man of sharp wit and a ready orator. 
Both sides of the house admire him, and he 
has many friends throughout the county. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



93 



HOSKING, WILLIAM. HENKY. Wil- 
liam Henry Hosking is one of the leading 
Eepublicans of Houghton County, and also 
one of the leading merchants of Calumet, 
Michigan, where he owns and manages the 
mercantile business of Hosking & Co., whose 
general store is one of the largest in that city. 

Mr. Hosking is of English birth, having 
been born IToA^ember 10, 1859, in Tyward- 
reath, England. His father, Wm. Hos- 
king, came to this country from Cornwall, 
England, and located in Keewenaw County 
in 1863. Here he found work on the Phoe- 
nix mine, and in 1865 was in a position to 
send for his family. When young Hosking 
reached the proper age was sent to the so- 
called district school near the mines, but at 
the age of 13 he was put to work tending the 
rock crusher at the rock house of the Atlantic 
mine, where his father was employed. His 
first salary was $28 a month, quite a good 
salary for a boy of 13, but later a cut was 
made and he was paid only $20 a month. 
A¥hile engaged in this employment he met 
with an accident and one of his legs was 
broken. This laid him up for some time. 

When he became 15 years of age he was 
sent to school at Houghton, Michigan. This 
school Avas four miles down the hill from 
the Atlantic mine, and the boy walked that 
distance night and morning. After finishing 
at the Houghton school he was employed as 
a porter in the Atlantic mine store. The fol- 
lowing year he earned $10 a week and during 
the eight years he remained with the company 
he was promoted every year until in 1883, 
wdien he severed his connection with the busi- 
At this time Mr. Hosking held the 



ness. 



position of head clerk and buyer. He then 
left the Atlantic mine store to take charge of 
the Central mine store in Keweenaw county, 
where he only remained one year, leaving to 
become manager for William AValls & Co., at 
Calumet, a position he held for three years. 

He had saved considerable money during 
all these years, and now, in company with 
M. J. Culnan, he branched out into business 
for himself, purchasing the stock of William 




WILLIAM HENRY HOSKING. 

Walls & Co., and commencing business under 
the firm name of Hosking & Culnan. The 
firm conducted a successful business in dry 
goods and furnishings for three years. Hos- 
king had invested all his savings, some 
$2,000, in the venture and gone into debt 
some $2,500, but the business thrived and in 
1890 Mr. Hosking sold out his interest in the 
firm and went into business alone, and today 
he is the owner of one of the most thriving 
mercantile houses in Calumet. At the present 
writing he is holding the office of postmaster 
at Calumet, to which he was appointed Octo- 
ber 1, 1897. He was treasurer of Calumet 
township for two years. 

Mr. Hosking married in 1885, Miss Annie 
M. Walls, daughter of James Walls, a mer- 
chant and mining man of Hancock, Michi- 
gan, and two little girls, Ethel and Eloise, 
have been the result of that union. Both of 
them are attending school in Calumet. Mr. 
Hosking is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of 
the Sons of St. George, an order that has many 
representatives in this country, and of the 
Knights of the Maccabees. 



94 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




RANSOM E. OLDS. 

0I;DS, EAIS^SOM E. Ransom E. Olds, 
now of Detroit, Mich., president and general 
manager of the Olds Gasoline Engine Works 
at Lansing, and of the Olds Motor Works, of 
Detroit, Mich., was born Jnne 3, 1864, in 
Geneva, Ohio. His father was a machinist, 
and from his early yonth the boy was bronght 
np around machinery of all kinds nntil he 
learned to become familiar wdth that trade 
and acquainted himself with all sorts of 
mechanical work, for which he seemed 
naturally adapted. He attended the schools 
of Cleveland, and in Lansing his education 
Avas completed. After leaving school he pur- 
chased a half interest in his father's shop and 
foundry, making a first payment of $300 with 
money he had earned working during his holi- 
days and vacations. 

The year after he entered the shop with 
his father as a partner the little shop, 18x26, 
was found to be too small to accommodate 
the growing business, and a new site across 
the street was purchased, and a two-story 
building, 25x110, erected. In two years' 
time business increased so that the facilities 
had to be again enlarged, and from this time 
on the gasoline engine and boiler became one 



of the main articles manufactured by the 
firm. In 1890 the company was made into 
a corporation with a capitalization of $50,000, 
and Eansom E. Olds was made general man- 
ager of the entire plant and its business. The 
business still increased, and the company's 
output was forwarded all over the United 
States and Great Britain. In 1894 the new 
gasoline engine was patented and put on the 
market, and their manufacture requiring new 
machinery and a larger area of factory space, 
10,000 more feet was added to the floor 
space, and the required machinery was placed 
in operation in the plant. About this time 
the remaining interest of the elder Olds was 
] purchased by the son, the father's health 
being slightly impaired and causing his 
retirement. In October, 1898, the company's 
capital was increased to |150,000, Ransom 
E. Olds continuing as president and general 
manager. 

The present plant is one of the most com- 
plete and modern in the United States. It 
is supplied with all up-to-date appliances for 
the handling of heavy machinery, traveling 
cranes, etc., and the annual output brings in 
returns averaging $200,000 annually. The 
business ranks as one of the largest plants of 
this kind in the United States. In 1887 Mr. 
Olds invented and constructed a horseless 
carriage with a gasoline engine for motive 
power. This has been improved upon and re- 
constructed, and in 1892 a successful vehicle 
was made and shipped to Bombay, India. 
In 1896 the present style of automobile made 
its appearance, resulting in the organization 
of the Olds Motor Works of Detroit, with a 
capital of $500,000, for their manufacture. 

A new plant was built on Jefferson avenue, 
Detroit, with a floor space of about tAVO and 
one-half acres, with every facility found in 
an up to date works. Mr. Olds gives both 
Lansing and Detroit plants his personal atten- 
tion, and his success can be attributed to his 
patient and untiring will in one line. 

Mr. Olds married Miss Metta Woodward, 
daughter of Joseph D. Woodward, of New 
York state, at Lansing, Mich., June 5, 1889. 
He has two children, Gladys and Bemice, 
aged, respectively, seven and five years. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



95 



VAN OKDEK, MATHEW C. Van Or- 
den is the name of an old New York family, 
brought from the Netherlands to this country 
in 1600, when the Dutch were settling Man- 
hattan Island, and building the town of New 
Amsterdam, now grown into the Greater New 
York. 

Mathew C. Van Orden is the son of Will- 
iam Van Orden, who was a carriage manufac- 
turer in West Farms, Westchester county. 
New York. Mathew Van Orden was born in 
New York city, October 28, 1844, and at- 
tended school in that city until he was 13 
years of age, when he went to work packing 
spices in a basement for a Brooklyn house. He 
was put back to school by his father, but 
shortly after obtained the consent of his par- 
ents and went to work for two years for a re- 
tail grocery in Brooklyn, and thence into a 
wholesale spice house, where he was given 
charge of the packing department. Shortly 
after this he came to Michigan, where his 
brother William was the company of Joseph 
Paul & Company, and clerked in the general 
store for this firm. In 1865 he was given 
charge of his brother's store at Eagle River, 
where he remained two years, and was then 
appointed receiver for the firm of Joseph Paul 
& Company, which had failed shortly after his 
brother withdrew from it. Mr. Van Or- 
den w^as then appointed assistant postmaster 
at Calumet, under Artimus Doolittle, and 
looked after the hardware business besides. 
In the spring of 1871 he visited Carthage, Illi- 
nois, where his affianced wife was very ill and 
not expected to live. He remained there until 
she recovered and they were married in 1872, 
and Mr. Van Orden brought his young wife 
back to Calumet, taking his old position, and 
upon the death of Mr. Doolittle closing up his 
estate, and becoming the supply clerk of the 
Calumet & Hecla Mining Company. After 
six months he was persuaded to remove to 
Houghton, Michigan, by Judge Hubbell, and 
take up the insurance business then conducted 
by Judge Hubbell. The firm was organized 
as Van Orden & Company, and when Judge 
Hubbell was sent to Washington he sold out 



jMH 






»^ 






^^^^^^" '• ^jH 


i^^^^^<, ,' , ; „ 










^A»' '-'^ ' ' . l^H 


^^^^^^^K^. ' ^"*^4> i 




a " ■ .;-^M 


HH^HhHM^^.:';'' -^ , "• 






^^MH|^^gr^ 


^^H 


,"^H 


^HM^^^fii '^I^^B 


i O'^^^^^^^^^^m 








. - - :H 


^^^^H||^^K%1<4^^ 




;r ^ 






.•11^' J 












'^CXP'^f- '^^jMl^^^l 






^ 







MATHEW C. VAN ORDEN. 

his interest in 1873, and since that time the 
firm has been Van Orden Brothers. In 1875 
Mr. Van Orden branched out into the manu- 
facturing of lime. For one year he w^as secre- 
tary and manager of the Peninsular Electric 
Light & Power Company of Houghton. In 
1898 he was made receiver of the old Winona 
mining properties, which operated about forty 
years ago. He secured options on the adjoin- 
ing properties to the extent of 1,500 acres and 
then organized the Winona Copper Mining 
Company, which was placed on the market by 
Paine, Webber & Co., of Boston, Mass. In 
1898 he also organized and placed on the 
market the Wyandotte Copper Mining Com- 
pany, and Mr. Van Orden is the managing 
Michigan director of the company. 

Mrs. Van Orden died in 1890, leaving five 
children, two boys and three girls. 

Mr. Van Orden's interests are centered in 
the manufacturing of lime, and wholesale 
dealer in coal, cement, plaster, brick and 
sewer pipe. He is also conducting the insur- 
ance business in the firm of Van Orden 
Brothers, at Houghton. 



96 



MYN OF PEOGKESS. 




RICHARD STURTRIDGE FORSYTH, M. D. 

FOESYTII, M. D., EICHAET) STIJET- 
EIDGE. To attain success through the m- 
dividual efforts of one's self is to enhan-e the 
value of success. Eichard Sturtridge For- 
syth, M. I)., of Gladstone, Michigan, knows 
the proper yaluation of that word, for he has 
worked hard and earnestly for the position he 
now occupies in life. He was born February 
27, 1867, in the village of Lexington, Michi- 
gan. His education was commenced in the 
neighboring district school, but when he 
reached his seventh year his father, who had 
been in the business of manufacturing 
pumps and fanning mills, failed and lost all 
he had on a patent, and then went to farm- 
ing. Young Forsyth was then compelled to 
work for his living expenses, if he wished 
to further his education, so he attended the 
public schools of Lexington, and found work 
for his board with John Mason, of that city, 
who bought wheat and operated an elevator, 
and dealt in live stock. The following two 
years the young man worked on a farm and 
attended district school until he was able to 
take a teacher's certificate of the third grade, 
when he became a teacher, and at one time he 



had charge of the village school at Elmer, 
Michigan. While teaching this latter school 
he boarded at Dr. eT. W. Wallace's house, and 
commenced the study of medicine. The next 
year he found employment with James Fisher, 
a druggist at Marlette, and Avhile in this em- 
ployment he received instructions in that bus- 
iness, and learned pharmacy, so that in Janu- 
ary, 1887, he was sufficiently advanced in that 
profession to pass the rigid examination be- 
fore the State Board of Pharmacists. 

In this new profession the young man 
found no difficulty in obtaining employment. 
He was engaged as a pharmacist by Drs. Met- 
calf and Butts of Crystall Falls, Michigan, 
and assisted in the hospital operated by those 
gentlemen, reading medicine in the meantime 
and preparing himself for further advance- 
ment. 

In February, 1888, he went to Norway, 
Michigan, where he worked until fall in a 
drug store, then having saved sufficient money 
to enable him to stand the siege, he went to 
Detroit, and entered the Detroit College of 
Medicine, one of the oldest institutions of jts 
kind in Michigan. Three years were spent 
at the college and in 1892 he graduated as 
an M. D. During vacations, while a stu- 
dent at the college, he worked in a drug 
store as a pharmacist for Dr. Frank B. Mc- 
Cormick at Black Eiver, Michigan, so that 
when he received his diploma the young doc- 
tor w^as only $200 in debt. The first year he 
practiced his profession at Black Eiver, and 
in 1893 moved to Gladstone, where he is one 
of the foremost physicians of that city. In 
Gladstone he met and married Miss Ida 
Mertz, daughter of Eichard Mertz, ex-post- 
master of that city and now city treasurer. 
The marrii?ge took place August 29, 1894. 
Two children have been the result of this 
union, Eichard A. and Takla Louise. 

Dr. Forsyth is the city physician and health 
officer for the city of Gladstone, physician 
and surgeon to the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Com- 
pany, and also surgeon to the Minneapolis, St. 
Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Eailroad, Soo line 
branch Canadian Pacific. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



97 



BENNETT, ALBEKT DWIGHT. To 

New York state Michigan is indebted for 
many young men who have grown np with 
Michigan and taken an active part in the ad- 
vancement of its commercial and educational 
interests. Albert D wight Bennett was born 
in Warsaw, a little town in the Empire State, 
March 11, 1858, being the son of Dr. Daniel 
M. Bennett, Avho is now one of the oldest 
medical practitioners in Port Hnron. 

Mr. Bennett was educated in Saginaw and 
Port Hnron public schools. 

Eresh from school, at the age of 16 he wa.s 
given a trusted position as corresponding 
clerk in the Port Huron Savings Bank. Here 
the same energy and attention that he had 
previously shown in all his other work 
brought him rapid promotion, and after serv- 
ing in the capacity of clerk for a short time 
lie was advanced to the position of book- 
keeper, i 

He remained with the bank for a period of 
sixteen years, retiring in 1890 at the age of 
32 years to associate himself with Henry 
Howard as secretary and manager of the 
Howard Towing Association, a concern own- 
ing and operating a large fleet of fine lake 
tugs. 

Mr. Howard died in 1894, and as Mr. Ben- 
nett had by this time become thoroughly con- 
versant with the affairs of the concern, and 
also acquired a complete knowledge of the 
other personal and business affairs of his late 
employer, he was made trustee and manager 
of the Henry Howard estate. 

This brought under his personal super- 
vision the large sawmill and lumber yards 
in Port Huron, which Mr. Howard had oper- 
ated prior to liis deatli, together with many 
valuable business blocks in that city and a 
large quantity of real estate. The estate has 
flourished under Mr. Bennett's management, 




ALBERT DWIGHT BENNETT. 

and at the present writing he is still acting 
in the capacity of trustee and manager. 

Mr. Bennett was one of the organizers of 
the American Egg Case Co., of Port Huron, 
established in 1895 for the purpose of manu- 
facturing cases for the careful transportation 
of eggs. This company was recently bought 
out by firms outside of Port Huron, who have 
uow removed the business from that city. 

Besides being a director in this company, 
Mr. Bennett is also a director in the Com- 
mercial Bank of Port Huron, the vice-presi- 
dent of the Port Huron Gas Co., president 
of the St. Clair County Abstract Co., a trus- 
tee in the United Home Protectors' Associa- 
tion of Port Huron, president of the Port 
Huron Elevator Co., and a trustee in the 
Baptist church of that city, of which he has 
always been an active and influential mem- 
ber. 

He was married in 1885 to Miss Emily 
Louise Howard, of Port Huron. They have 
two children, Henry Howard Bennett, aged 
ten years, and Helen Howard, aged seven 
vears. 



98 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




CHARLES LINCOLN BOYNTON. 

BOYSTOIS^, COL. CHAELES LIN- 
COLN Charles Lincoln Boynton, of Port 
Hnron^ Michigan, is the senior member of the 
firm of Boynton & Thompson, vessel owners,^ 
who operate a great number of towing tugs on 
the Great Lakes and control one of the largest 
wrecking fleets on those waters, consisting of 
twelve tugs equipped with every modern 
wrecking appliance. 

Charles Lincoln Boynton is the son of 
Major "Nathan S. Boynton, who won his title 
of major in the TJnion Army during the 
Civil War. Nathan Boynton is the father 
and founder of the Order of the Knights of 
the Maccabees, and now holds the position in 
that order of Supreme Eecord Keeper, K. O. 
T. M. of the World. Upon the organization 
of the Maccabees, Charles Lincoln Boynton 
entered his father's office as an assistant, and 
he has continued wn'tli the organization up to 
date, being now chief clerk in the Supreme 
Tent Office. 

Charles Lincoln Boynton was born March 
31, 1860, in Cincinnati, where his parents 
resided until 1862. He w^as educated in the 
public schools of Port LIuron, and later at- 



tended the Commercial College of Detroit, 
where he received the benefit of a commercial 
education, wdiich has been most useful to him 
ever since. 

His first employment was that of a drug- 
clerk, in wdiich business he remained for five 
years, leaving it at the age of 20, and shortly 
afterward taking his present position. 

He became interested in the tug business 
through buying a one-quarter interest in the 
tug George G. Brockway. The investment 
w^as a good one, however, and as the business 
increased new^ vessels were gradually added to 
the fleet, until today the flag of the firm of 
The Tiionip!-:on Towing & Wrecking Associa- 
tion flies from twenty-one vessels, towing and 
wrecking tugs, steam and tow barges plying 
on the (jlreat Lakes and carrying lumber, coal 
and other freight to and from all the lake 
2:)orts. The Thompson Towing & Wrecking 
Association does all the towing through the 
American and Canadian locks at Sault Ste. 
Marie. In conjunction with the tug business, 
Mr. Boynton is also engaged in the coal and 
builders' supply trades, doing an extensive and 
thriving business in both these lines. 

Mr. Boynton is a descendant of Sir Mat- 
thew Boynton. His great-grandmother was 
Frances Eendt, of Montreal, Canada. Her 
father, Louis Eendt, w^as born near Bremen, 
Germany, and w^hen young enlisting in the 
German army, afterwards enlisting in the 
British army and participating in the battle of 
Waterloo; he also fought against the Ameri- 
cans, in the war of 1812. 

Besides being an enthusiastic Maccabee, 
Mr. Boynton is also a Mason, belongs to the 
J^obles of the Mystic Shrine, the Knights of 
Pythias, and the B. P. O. E. He served as 
colonel of the Thirty- third Michigan Infan- 
try during the Spanish-American war, and 
proved an efficient and popular officer. 

Col. Boynton has been offered the nom- 
ination for nearly every office in the Seventh 
District, but he has always been firm in de- 
clining such honors, preferring to be recog- 
nized only as a substantial business man rather 
than a politician. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



99 



ROBIATSOTsT, ORRm WILLIAMS. Mich- 
igan's Lieutenant-Governor, Orrin Williams 
Robinson, was born in Claremontj INTew 
Ilanipsliire, Angnst 12, 1834. He was the 
third eldest child in a family of nine children, 
and at tlie age of ten years he was started to 
work for his board and clothes on a farm 
adjoining his home. When he was fifteen 
years of age a little difficulty arose between 
the bo^^'s fatlier and his employer which 
resulted in young liobinson packing his be- 
longings in a handkerchief and starting to do 
battle witli the world on his own account. 

He found enij^loyment at farming until he 
was se\enteen and then went to work in a gun 
factory and foundry, getting three months' 
scliooling each winter. AVlien he reached the 
age of nineteen he decided to come to Michi- 
gan. His uncle was managing a copper mine 
in Ontonagon (^ounty, so borrowing fifty dol- 
lars he started out to find him. 

Reaching Ontonagon, at that time the larg- 
est town on the Upper Peninsula, he secured 
a job clearing up timber land, and remained 
there imtil 1856. He had managed to save a 
little money, which he proceeded to invest in a 
yoke of oxen. Thus equipped, he obtained a 
contract for ^'^toting" supplies, which venture 
resulted disastrously, so much so that, losing 
his money he w^as compelled to kill and sell 
his oxen. At length he managed to secure a 
position as assistant engineer at the ISTorwich 
mine, which he retained until February, 1856. 

Becoming disgusted with that section, he 
now determined to shift the base of his opera- 
tions to Green Bay, Wisconsin. The trip to 
til at place was made with a dog team by way 
of Marquette. 

The cold was intense, the mercury creep- 
ing down to twenty-two degrees below zero. 
To add to their sufferings, one of their num- 
ber. Captain McDonald, an elderly man, be- 
came exhausted with the journey and rather 
than abandon him tliey camped in the woods, 
digging a hole in the snow for their fire, and 
sitting around the blaze all night while the 
great trees snapped and burst open around 
them with the frost. Then the guides desert- 







, 


^H^ 


;J<jJ-:,|>^^ffl 


fe 






■ ---^ 


1 




^^^^K^ 


^^^fi^^^^H 




"#'i^5^^ 


^^1^1 


Hj^^^f^^^ 


^^^Kf ' 


Hi 


^^B, 'i 




■ 


I^KvSt^^ 


K 


^m|1|b 


F ^ 


M||i|J^H 


BB 


^^^^ 


^^B 


■ 


gKr ^^ 


- ^^K^ 


J 


M 


1 


1 




1 


] 


1 


1 



ORRIN WILLIAMS ROBINSON. 

ed, and after much suffering tlie party at last 
found its own way into Green Bay. There 
was no work there so the young man started 
south to Chicago, and thence to Kossuth 
county, Iowa, where he remained six years. 

In 1862 he returned to the copper country 
and for eleven years was engaged as shipping 
clerk for the Quincy mine. In 1873 he or- 
ganized the Sturgeon Eiver Lumber Company 
and built mills at Hancock, which were 
removed to (diassel in 1887 and greatly 
enlarged. 

This concern employs over two hundred 
men and is one of the largest plants in this 
state. Mr. Robinson is the president of the 
company. 

In 1865 he married Miss Cornelia L., 
daughter of Is^aham Lombard, of Weathers- 
field, Vermont. They have two children, M. 
Ethel, who graduated from Mary Institute, 
St. Louis, Missouri, and Dean L., who gradu- 
ated from Harvard University. Mr. liobin- 
son was elected to the Llouse of Representa- 
tives from the Second District jof Houghton 
in 1895; Senator from the Thirty-second Dis- 
trict in 1897, and Lieutenant-Governor of 
Michigan in 1898. His term expires in 1901. 



100 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




ROBERT DAY SCOTT. 

SCOTT, ROBERT Dx\Y. As sturdy as 
the thistle of his native land, Robert Day 
Scott has made his way through the troubles 
and vicissitudes of this life, winning the bat- 
tle in the end through sheer pluck and endur- 
ance. The R. 1). Scott carriage factory in 
Pontiac stands today like a monument 
erected by Mr. Scott's own hands, and when 
one considers from what a beginning Mr. 
Scott has built this colossal business it seems 
more than marvelous. 

His father, Robert Scott, was the manager 
of a large estate near Roxboroughshire, Scot- 
land, and it was there, on eJune 25, 1826, 
that Robert Day Scott was born. The fam- 
ily moved to America when Mr. Scott was 
but eight years of age, and settled on a farm 
near Guelph, Wellington county, Canada, in 
1834. When he reached the age of 18 years 
it was decided that he should learn a trade, 
and he was apprenticed to a wagonmaker. 

In 1849, being 23 years old, he decided 
that working for others was not as remuner- 
ative as working for himself might be, so he 
started in business on his own account. He 
prospered and business increased steadily, 



until the hard times and business reverses of 
the Canadian financial panic of 1857 wound 
up his concern. In 1865 Mr. Scott moved 
with his family to the United States and took 
up his residence in Pontiac, Michigan. 

These are the dark pages in his life history, 
although he now revicAvs them with a feeling 
of pride. He found himself in a strange city 
with an invalid wife, seven children and not 
a dollar in his pocket. At this period his 
trade stood liim in good stead. He found 
work at it and managed by hard work to keep 
things moving for a year, when, having accu- 
mulated a little money, he opened a shop of 
his own. This meant extra work. All dav 
he would work in the shop, and when night 
came, instead of resting from his labors, he 
was compelled to scour the country in search 
of dry timber suitable for the manufacture 
of wagons. 

Gradually his business commenced to 
grow, yet for a time he confined himself to 
supplying the local trade only. After a while 
he began branching out for sales in the sur- 
rounding country, and his business increased 
year by year. In 1888 he built a small fac- 
tory and started to manufacture road carts 
and wagons for export. Today R. T). 
Scott & Co. own and operate one of the largest 
plants of its kind in Michigan, building annu- 
ally 10,000 vehicles, which are sold through- 
out the world. This immense plant is run on 
the profit-sharing plan for the employees. 

Mr. Scott was married to Elizabeth Ann 
Day, daughter of Daniel Day, at Guelph, 
Canada, on June 14th, 1849. Mrs. Scott 
died in J 802, leaving five children. Maria 
lives at home with her father and takes her 
mother's place in his household. Mary is 
the wife of Henry C. Ward, of Pontiac; 
William is associated with the firm of R. 
D. Scott & Company, at Pontiac; Phoebe 
Palmer is the wife of Howard Stevens, the 
builder and contractor, in that city, and Ellen 
lane is the wife of John E. King, of Jackson 
county, Michigan. Mr. Scott is a staunch 
Prohibitioidst. 



HISTOETCAL SKETCHES. 



101 



QUIRK, DANIEL LACE. The Isle of 
Man has been made fanions in recent years 
by the stories of Hall Caine, and its topog- 
raphy and people are better known to the 
readers of today than they were to those of a 
generation ago. 

It was on this little island, nnder the pro- 
tecting shadow of the flag of (ireat Britain, 
that the subject of this sketch, Daniel Lace 
Quirk, in the year 1818, on the 15tli day 
of June, first made his entry into the world. 
His father, Hugh Quirk, was a vessel owner, 
living in the little city of Peel, Isle of Man, 
and his mother's father was an Episcopal 
clergyman and her uncle was Deemster of the 
island. 

Four years after the birth of Daniel, the 
family came to America and settled on a 
farm in New York State, where, until he was 
17 years of age, the young man lived, 
and tilled the soil. Then he was apprenticed 
to learn the trade of carpenter and joiner, 
which trade he followed for many years. 
His education was received at a district 
school near Rochester, New York, and with 
the aid of that education he has gradually 
made his own wa}^ to the position he now^ oc- 
cupies in the business and commercial world. 

Mr. Quirk came to Michigan in 1838, set- 
tling in Ann Arbor, wliere he worked at his 
trade for nine years. In 1847 he purchased 
the Belleville Mills, in AVayne County, which 
he owned and operated for a period of six 
years, after wdiich he sold out and went to 
Chicago, Illinois, for the purpose of engaging 
in the commission business. There, under 
the firm name of Dow, Quirk & Company, in 
1861, he began the pork-packing business 
which afterwards became known as the Chi- 
cago Packing Company. He returned to 
Michigan in 1863, this time to Ypsilanti, 
where he now lives, and in 1864 he assisted 
in organizing the First National Bank of that 
city. Since its organization he has been the 
president and vice-president. At the present 
writing he holds the position of president. 

He was one of tlie principal men who con- 
structed the AVabash Railroad from Detroit, 




DANIEL LACE QUIRK. 

Alichigan, to Butler, Indiana, and was one of 
the projectors and builders of the now Lake 
Shore Railroad from Ypsilanti to Hillsdale, 
Michigan. He was also one of the promoters 
of the Eel River Railroad, built in 1871, from 
Auburn to Logansport, and of the electric 
road from Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor. He was 
instrumental in building the large woolen and 
paper mills erected in 1865 at Ypsilanti, and 
besides his ])resent business as banker he is 
interested in the Peninsular Paper Company 
and a director in the Eel River Railroad. 

Mr. Quirk has never lost his love for his 
first occupation, and he still owns and oper- 
ates several farms near Ypsilanti. From 
1852 to 1855 he occupied the office of Aud- 
itor for Wayne County. 

In 1843, Mr. Quirk married Miss Nancy 
Scott, of Lodi, who died in 1850, leaving one 
daughter, Nancy, who is the wife of Charles 
P. Ferrier, of Ypsilanti. In 1852, he mar- 
ried Miss Priscilla Frain, daughter of Henry 
Frain, and they have three children. Eliza- 
beth is now Mrs. Ira P. Younglove, of Chi- 
cago; Mrs. Jennie Quirk Pack lives at home. 
Daniel L. Quirk, Jr., is cashier of the First 
National Bank of Ypsilanti. 



102 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




HON. EDGAR WEEKS. 

WEEKS, HON. EDGAE. A familiar 
figure in Miehigan politics and a hard worker 
for the Eepublican party, Hon. Edgar 
Weeks, of Mt. (Jlemens, Michigan, is one of 
the prominent men of this State. As a law- 
yer he possesses great ability and in the 
course of his long practice he has engaged in 
many of the most important cases ever tried 
in the courts of Macomb county. 

He Avas born in Mt. Clemens in August, 
1839, and he has lived there all his life. His 
father, Aaron Weeks, was one of tlie pioneers 
of Macomb county. 

When about 15 years of age the young 
man commenced learning the trade of a 
printer, and for a time occupied the post of 
'^deviF^ in one of the printing offices in his 
native town. Two years later he took charge 
of a newspaper office in IsTew Baltimore, re- 
maining in that position for a brief time. 
Shortly after this he came to Detroit, where 
he was employed on the old Evening Tribune, 
and also on the Detroit Eree Press. About 
the year 1858 he entered the office of the 
county clerk of Macomb county as an assist- 
ant^ and at the same time commenced the 



study of law. Soon afterwards he was taken 
into the offices of Eldredge & Hubbard, at 
Mt. Clemens, where he remained up to the 
time of his admission to the bar in 1861. 

Mr. Weeks took an active part in the poli- 
tical campaign of 1860, and in June, 1861, 
when the civil war broke out, he enlisted in 
Company B of the Eifth Michigan Volun- 
teer Infantry, Avhicli was raised in Mt. Clem- 
ens. Before the regiment was fully organ- 
ized he was made first sergeant of that com- 
pany, and as such went to the front about the 
1st of September, 1861. 

He had only been in the service ten 
months when he was commissioned by Gov. 
Blair as a first lieutenant and adjutant in the 
Twenty-second Michigan Infantry. While 
his regiment was in Kentucky during the 
winter of 1862-63 he was again promoted, 
this time to the rank of captain in Company 
E of the same regiment. 

Upon his return from the war in 1861, he 
resumed his practice of law in Mt. Clemens, 
and the same year established the Mt. Clem- 
ens Monitor, which is still the leading Ee- 
publican organ of Macomb county. In the 
fall of 1861 Mr. Weeks was elected to the 
office of circuit court commissioner, but was 
forced to resign tliat office by reason of the 
law permitting the soldiers to vote in the 
field being declared unconstitutional. 

He has held many offices. In 1866 he 
was made prosecuting attorney for Macomb 
county. In 1875 he was appointed probate 
judge of Macomb county by Gov. Bagley. 
He was nominated for Congress in 1884 but 
defeated. A delegate to the National Con- 
vention at Chicago, which nominated Benja- 
min TIarrison for president, Mr. Weeks took 
an active part in the effort made at that time 
to nominate Gen. Alger, was elected to Con- 
gress in the fall of 1897 and now represents 
the Seventh District of Michigan in the 
Fifty-sixth Congress of the United States. 

His son, John A. Weeks, has served for 
years as prosecuting attorney for Macomb 
county. 



HTSTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



103 



WILSOT^, M. I)., WILLIAM DEAN. 
William Dean Wilson was born in Ogdens- 
Inirs;, N^. Y., Jnne 27, 1850. His cdncation, 
acquired in many ])laces^ was commenced in 
Ills native city, where the Wilson family first 
settled. While he was but a boy his family 
came to Michigan, settling near Komeo. 
Young Wilson worked for his education. 
His father died when he was too young to 
remember much about it and the boy, 
very early in life, found that he must 
learn tlie actual meanintr of that o;ood 
American word, ^^Hustle.'' He worked 
on a farm dm'ing^ the summer months and in 
the winter attended school, iinally graduatiuij,' 
from Parson's business college at Saginaw. 
At the age of 10 he found himself in the posi- 
tion of teacher, and not a very enviable ])osi- 
tion was it, for he was appointed to the Titta- 
baAvassee district, better known as tlie ^'Titta- 
bawassee Boom,'' which was then considered 
one of the toughest districts in Saginaw 
county. Many other teachers had failed to 
manage that school^ but the hard work of his 
early days gave him the necessary muscle and 
had trained him for it, and he succeeded in 
holding out for a year. Then, at the age of 
17, Mr. Wilson commenced tlie study of medi- 
cine in the office of Dr. Greenshields, of 
Kome, and the following year, borrowing 
$700 from the doctor, he entered the Eush 
Medical (Villege, of (^liicago, graduating in 
1878, at the head of the class. Dr.. Wilson, see- 
ing a good opening for a practice in Mt. C Siem- 
ens, located there, and was successful from the 
time he hung out his sign, so much so tliat in 
the second year of his practice he returned 
the loan that had enabled him to make his way 
through college. 

March 28, 1888, Dr. AVilson became a bene- 
dict, marrying Miss Nellie Prindle, of Grand 
Eapids, and his son Will John Wilson, aged 
nine years, is now going to school in Mt. 
Clemens. 

That Dr. Wilson was wise in his selection of 
a field is shown hj the position he at present 
occupies, that of mayor of Mt. Clemens, to 
which office he was the first Eepublican 
elected. He was not a candidate for that office 




WILLIAM DEAN WILSON, M. D. 

and in fact did not know of his nomination, 
as he never attended a political convention or 
caucus. He was elected on the Republican 
ticket by a large majority although the city is 
st ron gl y Democratic. 

Dr. Wilson, besides attending to his exten- 
sive practice, has many business interests. He 
is vice-president of the Ullrich Savings Bank, 
of Mt. Clemeiis, a thriving institution; a stock- 
holder in tlie Detroit Crematory, of Detroit, 
and also in tlie JVEacomb County Bank, at 
Lenox, Michigan. He is a niend)er of the 
scliool board in Mt. Clemens, of tlie Mt. Clem- 
ens Club, the Detroit and the Michigan Clubs, 
both of Detroit; the Michigan Medical Asso- 
ciation, the American Medical Association, 
the Mt. Clemens Chamber of Commerce, and 
several otlier social organizations. He owns 
much desirable real estate in Mt. Clemens, De- 
troit, Grand Kapids and Ionia, and is inter- 
ested in a large tract of Mississippi pine land. 
Dr. Wilson has been an active factor in push- 
ing Mr. Clemens to the front, and the city is 
indebted to liis management and executive 
ability for many of the improvements that 
have inede it one of the prettiest cities in the 
state. 



104 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 




CHARLES HENRY MARR. 

MAKE, CHAELES IIENEY. In 1898, 
Charles Henry Marr was made City Attorney 
of Wyandotte, Michigan, where he is looked 
npon as one of the brightest and most promis- 
ins' vounei: members of the bar of that citv. 

Born in the little town of Clinton, Michi- 
gan, September 5, 1865, Mr. Marr fonnd him- 
self entering life very much handicapped. 
His father, who was a station agent on the 
L. S. & M. S. E. E., died when the boy was 
but three months old, leaving him nothing 
but an nndecided lawsuit. 

When tlie boy was old enough to go to work 
he was given employment on a farm and dur- 
ing the winter months, allowed to attend the 
district school at Sand Lake, Lenawee County, 
Michigan. He was not a very strong boy, 
being extremely slender, and when fourteen 
years of age it was found that farm work was 
commencing to tell upon his frail constitu- 
tion. He gave it up and secured a position 
where he worked nights, and which gave him 
an opportunity during the day to study. At 
the age of sixteen he was sufficiently advanced 
in his studies to secure a teacher's certificate, 
and he commenced teaching in a district 



school, saving a little money in the mean- 
time which enabled him in the following year 
to attend the iVdrian High School, and later 
Brown's Business College at Adrian. A 
short trip to Chicago about this time intro- 
duced him to the hardware business, and he 
clerked in a store of this kind while in that 
city. Eeturning at the expiration of six 
months to Lenawee County he again resumed 
his old employment of working on a farm 
and teaching school. He also took a two 
years' course at the High School at Adrian, 
after which he was given the position of 
superintendent of the Springville village 
school. 

It was not until 1892 that he commenced 
the study of law^, in the law offices of James 
Pound. He boarded himself while engaged 
in his studies and when his money was ex- 
hausted returned once more to Lenawee 
County and school teaching. 

Mr. Marr studied Blackstone under very 
pecidiar conditions. Taking advantage of the 
holiday afforded him by the arrival of Satur- 
day each week, he would place his Blackstone 
under his arm, swing a shotgun across his 
shoulder and make his way to the heart of the 
woods. Here selecting a likely place for 
squirrels he would lay his gun on the log be- 
side him, and opening his book commence to 
read. 

After accunmlating sufficient money to 
carry him through another siege he returned 
to Pound's office and once more set about to 
master the intricate profession of law. In 
1896 he was admitted to the bar. 

This was a very happy day for the young 
attorney, and he was happier still when he 
saw his sign, painted by a friend, swinging 
over his office door in Wyandotte. He had a 
client the first week, and has succeeded since 
that time in establishing for himself a most 
lucrative practice. 

Mr. Marr is a member of the Catholic 
Church, belongs to the Catholic Knights and 
Ladies of America, also to the C. M. B. A. 
and the I. O. 0. E. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



105 



AYEEY, M. D., AARON B. Aaron B. 
Avery^ M. I)., is a descendant of Christopher 
Avery, the first of the name who emigrated 
to this country in 1630, and whose only son, 
Capt. James, foimded the well known family 
of ^^(Jroton Averys.'' His great-grandfather, 
l\ athan Avery, was a soldier in the revolution- 
ary war and settled in 1817 at Palmyra, New 
York, from whence his son, Benjamin, emi- 
grated to Michigan with his family in 183 (S, 
locating in Dansville, Ingham county. Na- 
than Avery, Benjamin's oldest son, after his 
marriage in 1847 to Matilda Rockwell, 
daughter of Eli Rockwell, removed to Lyn- 
don, Washtenaw county, and resided there 
until his death in 1889, and here his third 
child and oldest son, Aaron B. Avery, was 
born, August 26, 1853. His boyhood was 
spent on his father's farm, attending the 
district school, until at the age of 16 
years he entered the State Normal School 
at Ypsilanti, remaining two years. In 
1874 he attended the Chelsea High School, 
from which be was graduated in 1875. For 
five years he was a successful teacher in the 
schools of Washtenaw and Livingston coun- 
ties, following this occupation between inter- 
vals of attending school and attending lectures 
at the Homeopathic (Jollege of the University 
of Michigan, where, in 1878, he received his 
degree of M. 1). Shortly after lie entered the 
practice of his profession in Farmington, 
Oakland County, where he soon became 
popular and was called upon to £11 the 
position of health officer and superintendent 
of schools. October 22, 1879, Dr. Avery 
married Miss Lillian Drake, daughter of 
Francis Marion and Sarah Elizabeth Drake, 
of Farmington. Two daughters have been 
born to Dr. and Mrs. Avery, both of whom 
are now attending high school. 

After eight years of successful practice in 
Farmington and vicinity, Dr. Avery removed 
to Pontiac, wdiere his reputation had pre- 
ceeded him. Here he immediately entered 
upon an extensive practice and speedily took 
his place among the leading physicians. 




A. B. AVE]RY, M. D. 

He has been eleven years surgeon of the 
P., O. & N. R R. and has served four years 
as examiner on tlie United States pension 
board. He has also held the office of first 
vice-president of the State Homeopathic 
Medical Society of tliis state, and chairman of 
the Bureau of Materia Medica. He was pre- 
sident of his graduating class at Ann Arbor 
and has been president of the Alumni Asso- 
ciation. In politics he is, and has always 
been, a Republican. 

Dr. Avery stands high iu the Masonic fra- 
ternity. He was raised in Farmington Lodge, 
Xo. 151, F. & A. M., in June, 1879, and is 
past-master of the same. At Pontiac he iden- 
tified himself with the fraternity and has the 
honor of being past-master of Pontiac Lodge, 
No. 21, F. & A. M.; past high priest of Oak- 
land Chapter, Xo. 5, R. A. M., and past com- 
mander of Pontiac Commandery, No. 2, K. 
T. He is also a member of Moslem Temple, 
Detroit, Michigan. 

Dr. Avery is president of the South Lyon 
Banking Co. and also of the Pontiac 
Wheel Co., and has a financial interest in 
other business enterprises of Pontiac. 



106 



i¥E]Sr OF PEOGKESS. 




THOMAS WATSON. 

WATSOX, THOMAS. Vigorous, nieii- 
tallj and physically, Tlioiiias Watson, 
altliongh fifty years of age, is still in what 
may be called the prime of life, and holding 
the trusted position of Great Eecord Keeper 
of the Knights of the Maccabees. 

Mr. Watson is a Scotchman, and a fine 
type of that noble-hearted and generous race. 
He was born October 24, 1S49, in the little 
town of Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland, and 
received his education in the common schools 
of that place. He commenced life as a farm- 
er's boy. Hard working and industrious, he 
remained at this employment until he became 
of age, and then he drifted into the general 
store business. Later he tried journalism, 
after which he entered the grain business. In 
this he was most successful for a time, but 
losing his money through sudden business re- 
verses, he became disgusted with the keen 
competition he found in the commercial 
world of the old country and decided to come 
to America. This was an ambition he had 
been fostering for many years. He arrived 
in ISTew York in 1884, and after remaining in 



that city for only a short period, he went to 
Eoscommon, Michigan, and entered the em- 
ploy of M. Wilson, the well known lumber- 
man of Muskegon. It was not long before 
Mr. Watson's merits became known to his 
employer and he quickly advanced him to 
the position of superintendent and manager 
of his business in Eoscommon. In this posi- 
tion he continued until October, 1894, when 
he was appointed to his present office. Great 
Eecord Keeper, K. O. T. M., of the World. 

Mr. Watson became identified with the 
Maccabees in 1890, and in 1891, at Jackson, 
Michigan, he was, by general acclamation, 
elected Great First Master of the Guards. 

The following year, at Detroit, Michigan, 
lie was made Great Sergeant, and in 1893, at 
the Grand Eapids convention, he was further 
advanced to Great Lieutenant-Commander. 
He was re-elected to this office at Lansing in 
1 894, but he resigned the position shortly 
after, and was appointed by the Great Com- 
mander to fill the vacancy in his present 
office. 

Mr. Watson married Miss Mary Goodwin, 
the daughter of John Goodwin, of John 
(loodwin &: Co., iron founders and bridge 
builders, of Motherwell, Scotland. They 
have four children. 

Besides being a member of tlie Knights of 
the Maccabees, Mr. Watson is also associated 
with many other fraternal societies, namely: 
The F. and A. ]\L, T. O. O. F., The Wood- 
men of the World and the Knights of 
Pythias. 

>To better man could be found to occupy 
the position he holds in the order of the Mac- 
cabees, for he is well fitted for it in every 
way. Every tent within the jurisdiction 
of Michigan knows and recognizes his just 
decisions in the matter of law, and hundreds 
have gratefully acknowledged his fairness 
and thoroughness in dealing with them. A 
true friend, a sturdy Scotchman and a whole- 
souled gentleman, ''Tom" Watson is known 
and loved throughout the entire order and 
the State of Michigan. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



107 



STEVENS, HEKMAN W. The parents 
of Herman W. Stevens came to Michigan 
from the western part of Xew York state in 
1841 and settled in the little village of Romeo, 
where, two years later, he was born. In 
1847 the family moved to Port Ilnron. 

Mr. Stevens' edncation commenced in the 
common schools of that city, after wdiicli he 
entered the University of Michigan, gradn- 
ating from the literary department with the 
degree of A. B., in 1866, and two years 
later, in 1868, finishing liis legal stndies and 
gradnating from the law department. 

Immediately after gradnating lie com- 
menced the practice of law at Port Huron, 
and with the exception of the time he 'died 
the position of circuit jndge he has been con- 
tinnonsly engaged in active practice in St. 
Clair and adjoining counties, occupying to- 
day a leading position in the legal profession. 
He is a Republican and has been stannch 
and firm in upholding the tenets of Repub- 
licanism. He has been an active worker in 
the politics of his county and district, and at 
the state judicial convention of 1897 he re- 
ceived the vote of St. Clair County for the 
supreme judgeship nomination. Prior to 
this he held the office of supervisor of the 
first ward of Port Huron, in 1870, and from 
1874 to 1878 was circuit court commissioner. 
From 1881 until 1887 he filled the position 
of circuit judge of St. Clair county. 

After his term of service "in the latter 
capacity, Mr. Stevens was not a candidate for 
renomination, and he did not hold office 
again until in the fall of 1897 he was elected 
mayor of Port Huron, which position he oc- 
cupies today. 

As mayor of Port Huron, he is giving that 
city a conservative administration. He is 
not a man given to show or to the display of 
official frills, but he insists upon the charter 
limitations governing expenditures being 
strictly observed. In his inaugural address he 
outlined this policy, adopting the unique 
watchword, ^Tay as w^e go,'' and expressing 
himself as opposed to any increase of the 




HERMAN W. STEVENS. 

bonded indebtedness of the city. This plan 
he has been faithfully endeavoring to carry 
out during his term of office, as far as con- 
sistent with the promotion of aeeded perma- 
nent improvements. 

Mayor Stevens loves his home, and when 
not engaged in professional duties or attend- 
ing to city affairs, he is to be found at home 
with his family. 

He married, in 1869 Miss Elizabeth 
I^ishop, of Flint, Mich. They have four 
children, two girls and two boys. One 
daughter, Miss Rose M. Stevens, lives at 
home, the other is the wife of J. I). Menisli, 
of Port Huron. The two boys, "Walter and 
Le Roy, are following in their father's foot- 
steps, in his old Alma Mater, the University 
of Michigan. 

Mr. Stevens is a director in the Port 
Ilnron Engine and Thresher Co., and also in 
the (J rand Trunk Elevator Co., besides being 
the president of the school board of Port 
Huron. Mr. Stevens' father, better known, 
perhaps, as Squire Stevens, was justice of the 
peace in Port Huron for thirty-six consecu- 
tive years up to the time of his death in 1883. 



108 



ME^sT OF PROGKESS. 




NATHAN SMITH BOYNTON. 

BOYNTON, MA J. IN^ATHAN SMITH. 

The life of Is^athan S. Boynton^ Port Huron's 
old and respected citizen, is more than inter- 
estingj inasmuch that in the sixty-two years of 
its course it has been brought in close contact 
with the history of this country, and has taken 
a part in the great system of its government. 

Mr. Boynton was born in Port Huron, 
Michigan, June 23, 1887. He was the son 
of Granville .F. Boynton, of Vermont, a car- 
penter by trade, and one of Michigan's early 
pioneers. Granville Boynton was a direct 
descendant of Sir Mathew Boynton, who, in 
the latter part of 1600, was knighted for in- 
troducing the first sheep and goats into 
America. 

Nathan S. Boynton's early days were 
passed on a farm, about three miles below 
Marine City, Mich., on the St. Clair river. 
He attended the district school and worked as 
a farmer's boy until, at 16 years of age, he 
went to Waukegan, HI., and graduated from 
the high school in that city. 

In 1856-57 he was engaged in the mercan- 
tile business in Port. Huron, but succumbed 
to the panic of the latter year, and at the age 



of 20 he started south in search of employ- 
ment. After visiting Cincinnati and j^ew 
Orleans he at last found himself in St. Louis 
with a capital of 25 cents with which to make 
a new business start. He found employ- 
ment cutting cordwood at 50 cents a cord, 
saved enough money to enable him to take a 
large contract, and afterwards to start him- 
self in business in Cincinnati, whither he now 
went. In that city he met and married Miss 
Annie Fielder, a German girl, who came to 
America when about 10 years of age. The 
marriage occurred June 20, 1859. Six chil- 
dren blessed that union, hve of whom are 
living today. 

An enthusiastic abolitionist, Mr. Boynton 
during the agitation of that question, 
wrote several articles for the abolitionist 
press while in ( 'incinnati, and in 1862 proved 
that he w^as willing to fight for his principles 
by enlisting as a })rivate in Company C, 
Eighth Michigan Cavalry. He was appointed 
lieutenant of Company L before the regi- 
ment left the state and in 1863 was made 
captain. In the winter of 1864-65 he re- 
ceived a commission as major of his regiment. 

After an almost continuous service, Maj. 
Boynton retired from the army at the end 
of the war, following various professions for 
a time. 

He has been active in politics and has 
held the offices of a member of the Michi- 
gan State Legislature in 1869, mayor of Port 
Hru^on, 1874-75, and recently he served two 
more terms as mayor of that city, from 1894 
to 1898. Politically he has been for the 
most time a Pepublican. 

His greatest life's work was the founding 
of the order of the Knights of the Maccabees. 
When, in 1881, he commenced as secretary 
of this order, there were only 700 names on 
tlie roll of membership. The three branches 
now number 400,000 members, 130,000 of 
which are in this state. He is popular with 
the membership throughout the country and 
affectionately referred to as the "Father of 
the Maccabees." 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



109 



BAIED, M. D., KOBEKT BKUCE. 
Robert Bruce Baird, M. J),, of Marine City, 
in taking an active part in the educational 
features of that city, has proven himself a 
progressive man and a zealous one. His poli- 
tical life began in 1881, when he was elected 
a member of the village council of Marine 
C^ity, and the following year he was made 
president of the village. During his term as 
president, the new city hall and the fine water 
works system were built, despite the obstinate 
and prolonged opposition of the rabid con- 
servative element, and Dr. Baird was largely 
instrumental in securing these much needed 
inj])rovements. Later, the schools b(Miig in a 
demoralized and depleted condition, lu^ Ava;- 
induced to accept a nomination for and was 
elected on the school board. He immedi- 
ately began to work toward the betterment 
of existing conditions. The progressive ele- 
ment of the city had elected him to the office, 
and working in behalf of that element. Dr. 
Baird secured to the public schools of Marine 
City a better standing than they had ever 
before had. Under his management bonds 
were issued and the new Third AVard School 
was purchased, and the Marine City High 
School was put on the University list. 

Dr. Baird was elected mayor of Marine 
City in 1889, and proved an excellent execu- 
tive officer. He also served as supervisor ol 
the township in 1882 and 1883, and as asses- 
sor of the village in 1883. Eor many years 
he has also been a health officer, in which 
capacity he has acted with great judgment. 

Dr. Baird was bori,! in East China, Michi 
gau, May 31, 1856, and was educated ii; the 
district and public schools of Marine City and 
St. Clair. 

His early lii'e was s])ent on a farm a short 
distance from ]\[arine (Jity, where during the 
planting, cidtivating and harvesting seasons 
the greater part of his time was occupied. 
When the winter season arrived he attended 
the district schools and later the public 
schools of Marine City and St. Clair. He 
has never lost his love for his first occupa- 
tion, and still owns and manages two large 



■r 


(Hfc-..^; ,,: 


''^^M 


llfllMir--- ^P~ 


'% 


¥^3 


J 


^^H^V^- - ^^"^ ' 


fli 


K^^ 


^^^iKi 


lil^^'''«ijH^HHK 



ROBERT BRUCE BAIRD, M. D. 

faruis near Marine City. He left the farm 
in 1873 and for one year Avorked in various 
capacities about a sawmill, returning to the 
farm in 1875. In September of that year 
he determined to start the study of the pro- 
fession he follows today, so he went to De- 
troit and entered the Detroit College of 
Medicine, from which institution he gradu- 
ated Marcli 5, 1878. Returning to Marine 
City, he hung up his sign as a physician and 
started to practice. 

April 12, 1882, Dr. Baird married Miss 
T'eodore H., daughter of Dr. George L. Cor- 
nell, of St. (ylair. His three children, Bruce 
C, Eunice H. and Elizabeth Cornell, are now 
citl ending those schools for which their 
parent worked so hard and successfully. 

Dr. Baird has an excellent practice in Ma- 
riiie City, and has won the respect and esteem 
of his fellow townsmen by his efforts to mjike 
ill at city's history one of progress. He is a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, the I. 0. 
O. E., K. O. T. M. and Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, and he also belongs to the 
Michigan State Medical Society. 



110 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 







^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 


9 


llll^^ '9'^HHH 








Hj 





HON. AUGUSTUS CARPENTER BALDWIN. 

BALDWIN, HOIS^. AUGUSTUS CAR- 
PENTEK. Hon. Augustus Carpenter Bald- 
win is the seven til lineal descendant of Henry 
Baldwin, of Woburn, Massacliusetts, who 
came from Devonshire, England, prior to 
1650. His father, Jonathan Baldwin, was a 
native of Canterbury, Connecticut, and was 
a successful merchant in Salina, iS^ew York, 
where he died in 1842. 

Augustus Carpenter Baldwin was born De- 
cember 24, 1817, at Salina, 'New York. 
Learning the printers' trade, he started in 
life as a printer on the Buffalo Bulletin. 
Later he became a teacher. He came 
to Michigan in the autumn of 1837 and 
settled in Oakland county, teaching for five 
years in different school districts, reading law, 
in the meantime, and fitting himself for the 
profession in which he now holds so honored 
a position. He commenced the technical 
study of law in the office of Hon. John P. 
Richardson, of Pontiac, in 1839, continuing 
with O. D. Eichardson, and on May 14, 1842, 
was admitted to the bar. His first official ser- 
vice was as school inspector for the Township 
of Bloomfield, Oakland County, in 1840. In 



the year 1844 he was elected to the State 
liegislature, and was re-elected in 1846. Dur- 
ing the latter year he was appointed Brigadier- 
General of the State Militia, in command of 
the Fifth Brigade, which position he held 
until 18f)2. In the years 1858 and 1854 Mr. 
Baldwin occupied the positidn of prose- 
cuting attorney for Oakland County, and in 
1862 he was elected to the Thirty-eighth Con- 
gress of the United States, from the then 
Fifth Congressional District, defeating the 
Republican candidate, R. E. Trowbridge. He 
was unanimously renominated in 1864, and 
received a majority of the votes cast in the dis- 
ti'ict. The Legislature had passed an act au- 
thorizing the soldiers to vote in the field, out- 
side the State. Tliis law the Michigan Su- 
preme Court had declared unconstitutional 
and in the contest the soldier vote, thus given, 
was allowed to Mr. Trowbridge, and Congress 
gave the seat to him. 

Mr. Baldwin was elected mayor of Pontiac 
in 1874, and the following year was made 
judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, from 
which position, after serving three years, he 
resigned, and returned to his law practice. 
Mr. Baldwin was very active in securing 
the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane 
at Pontiac, and has taken a great interest in 
the Pontiac schools, and the Michigan Mili- 
tary Academy at Orchard Lake. The latter 
contains Mr. Baldwin's fine library. 

Hon. A. C. Baldwin has participated in 
nearly every capital case tried in Oakland and 
Lapeer counties. He is an active Democrat, 
and has been a member of that party for sixty 
years, having several times been a delegate to 
national conventions. He is an honored frater 
in the Masonic fraternity and a past eminent 
commander of Pontiac Commandery, No. 2, 
K. T. In 1842 Mr. Baldwin was married to 
Isabella Churchill, who died in June, 1894. 
Their daughter is now the wife of Dr. Chris- 
tian, medical superintendent of the Asylum 
for the Insane at Pontiac. 

In 1895 he married Flora E., daughter of 
Hon. Friend Belding. 



HISTOETCAL 

SMITH, THOMAS KUSSELL. Scotland 
has contributed many men to the state of 
Michigan, and with the sturdiness of the 
Scotch character these men have made their 
way to the front ranks of the commercial 
army and at the same time have been instru- 
mental in building; up the state, and furnish- 
ing industries that employ many laborers. 

Thomas Eussell Smith was born in Glas- 
gow, Scotland, April 14, 1858. From his 
mother he inherits the royal blood of Mary 
Queen of Scots, for his mother, w^hose maiden 
name was Catherine McCallum, was a direct 
descendant of that unfortunate queen. 

Wlien Mr. Smith was but 10 years of age^ 
his family left their native land and came to 
America, locating in Cleveland, Ohio, where 
the boy was sent to school and given a com- 
mon school education. TTpon leaving school 
he commenced his life in the business world 
as a clerk in the large dry goods establish- 
liient of E. M. McCillan (t Co., of Cleveland, 
Ohio, where he remained for some time. De- 
cember 25, 1879, his first marriage occurred 
at Cleveland, when he wedded Miss Minnie 
B. Smith, of that city. Before going on his 
wedding tour, to oblige a fellow clerk, he put 
his name on the back of a note for $450, and 
when he returned he found that the clerk had 
left town, and the note must be met by the in- 
dorser. Thus he started his married life 
that much in debt. Mr. Smith does not re- 
gret the investment, for it has doubtless saved 
him many dollars since then, as he made up 
his mind at that time never to put his name 
on another note, and he has stood by that plan 
all through his business life. A few years 
after his marriage Mr. Smith moved to Chi- 
cago, Hlinois, where, in 1882, he was time- 
keeper in the blast furnaces of the Union 
Iron & Steel Company, of that city. 

He remained in Chicago until three years 
later, in 1885, when he removed to Lawton, 
Michigan, and August 24 started in business 
for himself. 

His first marriage brought him one child, 
Zadie Bell, Avho is living at the present time. 
She is 19 years of age, and is her father's sec- 



SKETCHES. 



Ill 




THOMAS RUSSELL. SMITH. 

retary. Harry, aged 15, is his stepson and is 
still attending school at Lawton. 

Today j\lr. Smith is interested in twenty- 
seven copper claims. He runs a general store 
at Lawton, a jewelry store at Mt. Pleasant, and 
a general supply store at Grand Encampment, 
Wyoming. He has two copper claims devel- 
oped at that place, located in a section that 
is exceedingly rich in that valuable min- 
eral. He has held several political offices, was 
member of the Cook County Republican Com- 
mittee of Illinois in 1883 and 1884, and also 
chairman of the Republican County Commit- 
tee of Van Buren county for four years. He 
lias held mnnj other county offices, and is now 
state oil inspector. Mr. Smith goes into poli- 
tics for recreation, and wants to be a leader or 
nothing at all. His second marriage took 
place at Lawton, May 15, 1895, to Mrs. Flor- 
ence A. Eord, a widow, the daughter of Jesse 
J. Smith, of Lawton. 

He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
the Oddfellows, Modern Woodmen of 
America. He was master of the Blue Lodge, 
F. & A. M., at Lawton, for four years, and 
has filled almost every oflSce in the chapter. 



112 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




SAMUEl^ W. SMITH. 

SMITH, SAMUEL W. Samuel W. 
Smith has had an interesting career, and in 
its course he has done much to benefit the 
people of Michigan, and win his Avay into the 
trust and esteem of his fellow-citizens in Pon- 
tiac, Michigan, wiiere he now resides. 

His father and mother, Nicholas B. and 
Mary Phillips Smith, came to this State in 
1841, and located in Oakland county. The 
father purchased eighty acres of new land in 
Brandon, which he cleared up and improved, 
and when lie had done so sold the property 
at an advanced price and purchased one hun- 
dred and twenty acres in Independence town- 
ship, where, August 23, 1852, the subject of 
this sketch was born. 

Samuel W. Smith's early school days were 
passed in the little village of Clarkson, Mich- 
igan. He pursued his higher course of 
studies in Detroit, and after obtaining a fair 
amount of ,knowledge he entered the Law De- 
partment of the State University, from which 
he graduated with honors in 1878. He had 
been admitted to the bar in 1877, and, after 
graduating, lie established himself to practice 
ill Pontiac, where for six months he worked 



alone, with considerable success, and then 
formed a partnership with Judge Levi Taft 
and Hon. Aaron Perry. The latter retired 
from the firm during the second year of the 
partnership, but the connection between 
Judge Taft and Mr. Smith continued without 
intermission until the death of the former, in 
1897. 

Jn 1880 Mr. Smith was elected Prosecuting 
Attorney for Oakland county, in which ca- 
pacity he served until 1884, when he was 
elected State Senator from the Eifteenth Sen- 
atorial District on the Bepublican ticket, win- 
ning the race by a majority of sixteen votes. 

Mr. Smith took an active part in the dis- 
cussion and passage of the law regulating the 
sale of oleomargarine, which protected the 
interests of the farmers and dairymen, and of 
the bills for the coupling of freight cars, 
which were introduced for the protection of 
the men in the employ of the railroad com- 
panies. 

On the expiration of his senatorial term he 
resumed his law practice, but in 1896 he re- 
ceived the Republican nomination for Con- 
gress from the Sixth District, to which posi- 
tion he was elected. As a member of this 
august body, Mr. Smith won and received 
more attention and respect than is gen- 
erally accorded to new members. He was 
especially active in looking after the in- 
terests of the old soldiers, and he favored any 
measures pertaining tO' the advancement of 
the farming interests. His bill for the revi- 
sion of the postal laws met with general ap- 
proval. The following term he was re- 
elected to Congress by an increased majority. 
Mr. Smith is interested in the Pontiac & 
Elint Electric Railroad. He is a member of 
nearly all the secret orders. 

JSTovember 17, 1880, he married Alida E. 
DeLand, in Waterford, Michigan. Mrs. 
Smith's father, Edwin T. DeLand, was one 
of the manufacturers of the celebrated De- 
Land Soda. 

Eour sons have been bom to Mr. and Mrs. 
Smith — E. DeLand, Ferris 'N., Wendell and 
Harlan S. Smith. 



IITSTOTIICAL SKETCHES. 



113 



MOOEE, HO]S\ GEOEOE WILLIAM. 

George William Moore, of Port Iliiron, is 
a descendant of the Hon. William Moore, 
who settled in New Hampshire in 1682, on 
land granted tlie family by the King of Great 
Britain. In 1775 George III. gave the fam- 
ily another large grant of several counties in 
New Brunswick. 

George AV. Moore was born in Fort Gra- 
tiot township in St. (^lair connty, April 12, 
1851), and at the age of 10 years he had 
oidy s]^ent 12 months in school. His parents 
were farmers, near Port Ilnron, and later 
they removed to Ilersey, Mich., wdiere yonng 
Moore received the advantage of four terms 
in the AVinter school. At the age of 18 years 
lie found employment rolling and scaling logs 
for A. A^. Alann & Co., of AInskegon, at their 
mill. Here he worked on the log deck, roll- 
ing the Avet, slippery logs onto the carriage for 
$1.75 a day. When the foreman put him on 
this Avork the men protested because of his 
youth, arguing that it was not work for a boy, 
but recpiired the strongest man. Neverthe- 
less the boy worked at this job all of two sum- 
mers, scaling logs around in the different log- 
ing camps during the winter, and earning in 
the last winter as high as $80 a month. 

In the summer of 1878, in company wdth 
a partner named (^ody, he commenced busi- 
ness ou his own account, taking a contract for 
putting in logs for the same company. They 
borrowed enough capital to start wdth and 
employing about 40 men commenced opera- 
tions. AVhen they settled up in the spring 
they Iiad a fair outfit, but no money com- 
ing. Phe next two Avinters resulted in the 
same way. In 1881 they transferred their 
operations to Missaukee County and put in a 
small steam road to get the logs out. They 
started $110,000 in debt and did not realize 
a dollar for three years. Although the pros- 
pect was not at all promising. Air. Aloore in 
1885 bought his partner out, and decided to 
work alone. The following four years were 
prosperous, and in 1889, selling out his inter- 
est in the concern, and returning to St. Clair 
township, Air. Aloore purchased the farm he 




HON. GEORGE WILLIAM MOORE. 

now owns, situated along the banks of the St. 
eclair river. 

In 1889, with his brother, F. T. Aloore, he 
organized their present bank at Capac, and in 
1890 Air. Moore orgauized the St. Clair 
(^ounty Savings Bank of Port Huron, of 
which he is now tlie cashier. In 1898 the 
private bank of G. AV. and P. T. Aloore was 
opened at Alarine City. 

Air. Aloore is one of the younger leaders of 
the Iveiuiblican party of St. Clair county and 
chairman of the Republican county commit- 
tee. He enjoys the confidence and support 
of tlie young element in his county, and is 
held in high regard by the more conserva- 
tive and elder Republicans. He was super- 
visor and chairman of the board in Massaukee 
county from 1884 until 1888, and elected 
State senator from the Eleventh District in 
1898. He is a stockholder in the Riverside 
AA^oodworking Company of Port Huron, and 
also of the Lang Pish Company in the same 
city, both of w^hich are exceedingly prosper- 
ous concerns. 

Air. Aloore married Miss Harriet Radcliffe, 
daughter of J. P. Radcliffe, at Hersey, Mich- 
igan, in 1885. They have four children. 



114 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 







::fiai|^^ 


K''"' 






\^'^:'lSs&''^u^';-iiiil 






* ..^^i£:.„ 




v^" • 




r 


f "'^ 


v^- 




(^ 


*\ 1 


^ 




W^^^ 










' :# ^^m 






> 




;^^^% 


il 


1^ ^^H 


•: 1 Ml* 




»: __....__.__ __ __ _ 



BRIG. -GEN. FRED HE WINGS CASE 

CASE, BRTG.-GEN. FRED HEAVH^fGS. 
Fred Flewings Case was born in the vil- 
lage of Constantine, Michigan, October 30, 
1857, where he lived nntil he was six 
years of age, when, in 1864, his parents 
moved to Three Rivers, Michigan. Here he 
was sent to the pnblic schools nntil he 
reached the age of 15, when he began to look 
abont for an occnpation in life. That of a 
journalist appealed to him most, so he applied 
for and secured a place in the printing office 
of the Three Rivers Reporter, then the lead- 
ing newspaper pnl)lished in St. Joseph 
county. His position was that of a '^devil,'' 
and for his first ten weeks' work he received 
in lieu of salary a book of travel, and after 
that he was paid $3 a week. The following 
year he found another position, setting type 
in the office of the Grand Rapids Democrat, 
Grand Rapids, Michigan. He remained in 
Grand Rapids for about eight months, and 
then went to Kalamazoo, where he secured 
cases on the Kalamazoo Telegraph. Here he 
remained and worked steadily for three years, 
casting his first vote in that city. 

In 1879 he went to Chicago, Hlinois, 



where he worked a year on the Chicago 
Times, and afterwards on the Herald. While 
in that city he became a Union man by join- 
ing Typographical Union No. 3, and he is 
still a member of that body. 

Shortly after this he returned to Three 
Rivers to connect himself with his father in 
the publication of the News-Reporter. In 
1888 he was appointed mail clerk and given 
the run between Grand Rapids and Elkhart. 
J^ater he was transferred to the main line 
working between (Heveland, O., and (jliicago. 

After six years' service he resigned in 1895 
and went back to the newspaper business, hav- 
ing purcliased the Three Rivers Tribune, 
which lie continued to publish until August 
1, 1896. 

His military record is a history of advance- 
ments. He first joined as a private in the 
Kalamazoo Light Guard, known in service as 
Company C, Second Regiment. He was 
transferred to Company D, Three Rivers, in 
1879, and elected Second Lieutenant of Co. 
D, Second Regiment, in 1880, re-elected in 
1881, resigned the following year. June 10, 
1885, he was made Captain of Co. D, in the 
same regiment, and August 22, 1892, was 
promoted to Major. March 30, 1893, he was 
elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second In- 
fantry, and February 16, 1897, was appoint- 
ed Inspector-General by Governor Pingree. 
Today he holds the office of Adjutant-Gen- 
eral, having been appointed July 11, 1898, 
and reappointed January 12, 1899. 

Gen. (yase is the descendant of an old Revo- 
lutionary family, his great grandfather served 
all through the war of American Independ- 
ence, and suffered with Washington's troops 
at Valley Forge. Gen. Case has held a few 
political offices having been Township Clerk 
of Lockport, Michigan, for a term and Re- 
corder of the Village of Three Rivers in 1881- 
82. He married in Three Rivers, May 20, 
1894, Carrie Roberts Tucker, daughter of 
Cyrus Roberts of that city. Gen. Case is 
affiliated with the F. and A. M., Lodge I^To. 
57, Three Rivers, and Lodge l^o. 43, K. P., 
of the same place. 



IIISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



115 



BLAKESLEE, EDWIN A. Merchant, 
banker and farmer, these are three occupa- 
tions that Edwin A. Blakeslee, of G alien, 
Michigan, follows today, and he is indebted 
for his present position largely to his own en- 
ergetic efforts, and the '^hnstling'' qualities 
wdth Avhich he seems endowed. 

His father, George A. Blakeslee, w^as one 
of the earlier settlers in Berrien Comity, 
where he arrived in 1854. Edwin was born 
in Galien, Michigan, July 18, 1805, and 
received his early education in the village 
school in that place. 

Edwin A. Blakeslee started to earn money 
for his education when he was but 1() years of 
age. His brother, since deceased, was the 
proprietor of a threshing machine outfit which 
he had been most successful in operating 
throughout the country. Young Edwin, see- 
ing til at there was plenty of room in the field 
for another plant of this kind bought a sec- 
ond-hand threshing machine engine and get- 
ting a discarded separator which he had made 
over, started out in business for himself. He 
was handicapped at the beginning by a |1,2()() 
indebtedness, but he cleared $800 the first year. 

He hired a good gang of men, did his own 
collecting and personally superintended the 
contracts. Clad in old blue overalls and a 
blue flannel shirt with an old straw hat on the 
back of his head he filled all stations in the 
threshing outfit, drawing water, acting as fire- 
man and engineer, feeding on the separator 
and filling any vacancy that occurred during 
the progress of the work. 

From the hot days and nights of July un- 
til the chilly ones of autumn he followed his 
occupation in the wheat fields for nine 
seasons, attending school when threshing 
stopped in the fall until vacation arrived. In 
this Avay he earned enough to pay his w^ay 
through college. 

At tlie age of seventeen he attended the 
Advent College in Battle Creek, and in 1883 
lie was a student at the jMichigan State l^or- 
mal School, Ypsilanti. There he finished the 
scientific course in 1887, and in the fall of 
1887 entered the LTniversity of Michigan, 




EDWIN A. BLAKESLEE. 

taking special work in chemistry, history, 
political economy preparatory to a course in 
the law department, which he entered in 
1890. By the death of his father he was 
forced that same year to leave college and 
take up the several business interests that had 
thus been left to his care. It was harder work 
than the young man had ever found in his 
youth. There was a hardwood sawmill, a 
general store, private banking interests, and 
other enterprises which needed strict atten- 
tion, and he has taken his father's place and 
all tliese enterprises are in the best financial 
condition. 

He has always been an ardent Republican, 
was Township C^lerk tliree terms and Super- 
visor for two years. He was elected to the 
State Senate in 181)6 and re-elected in 1898. 
In '97 was chairman of committee on taxation 
and member of finance and appropriation, 
and in '99 was chairman of cities and villages, 
roads and bridges, member of finance and ap- 
propriation and state affairs. 

He was married at Benton Harbor, Michi- 
gan, May 18, 1898, to Miss Adaline, daugh- 
ter of el. B. Graves of that place. 



116 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




JUDGE CHARLES DEAN LONG. 

LONG, JUDGE CHAELES DEAN. 

Charles Dean Long has lived in Michigan 
nearly 60 years. He was born in Grand 
Blane, Genessee county, Jnne 14, 1841, and 
at the present time is a resident of Lansing, 
Michigan. 

His parents were farmers, and came from 
New England families. His father's family 
were from Tewksbiiry, Massachnsetts, and his 
mother's family from Connecticnt. LIis 
grandfather's mother was a Chandler, and re- 
lated to the Chandler family of New Hamp- 
shire, the ancestors of the late Zachariah 
Chandler. Until he was thirteen years of age, 
Charles D. Long worked at farming, and 
when he started ont from a district school to 
get an advanced education he went to Flint, 
Michigan, where he did chores for his board, 
and took care of the school bnilding for his 
tnition for three years. His mother made his 
clothes for him, and in fonr years' time he 
graduated from the Lligh School in Flint, 
fitted to enter the university. In order to get 
the money to attend college he took to teach- 
ing school in Flint township, and other places. 
He was very much interested in geography, 



and in teaching it he had a hobby. He com- 
menced by setting rivers, mountains, and the 
different data connected with them, such as 
capitols of states, area, etc., into crude rhyme, 
set to some familiar tune, and this method 
proved most successful. 

The breaking out of the w^ar stopped his 
idea of a university education. August, 1861, 
he enlisted in (\)m})any A, Eighth Michigan 
Infantry. At the batt.e of AVilm'ngton 
Island, in Georgia, April 16, 1862, he lost an 
arm, and was also severely wounded. As soon 
as lie Avas able to travel he returned home and 
coimnenced to study law in the office of Oscar 
Adams, now Circuit flTulge of the Cheboygan 
district, and when, in 1864, lie Avas elected 
County C^lerk, and while in that position, was 
admitted to the bar. 

From this time on his advance was rapid. 
He was C'ounty Clerk of Genesee County 
from 1805 to 1873; Prosecuting Attorney 
from 1875 until 1881; a Supervisor of the 
National Census for Michigan in 1880; Judge 
Advocate and Major on the staff of Governor 
Jerome from 1881 until 1883; member of 
the State Military Board and Colonel on the 
staff of Gov. Alger 1883 to 1885; commis- 
sioner for Michigan to the Centennial celebra- 
tion of the adoption of the Constitution of the 
United States held in Philadelphia in 1887, 
and Justice of the Supreme Court, eTanuary 
1, 1883, re-elected in 1897. He has been 
president of the Detroit College of Law since 
its first organization. His law practice is con- 
ducted in partnership with George E. Gold. 

eludge Long married Alma A. Franklin in 
December, 1863. His three children live in 
Detroit. Jessie is the wife of John M. Bar- 
ton, with V/right, Kay it Co., Detroit, Burt 
E. is a member of tlie Metropolitan police 
force of Detroit, and May is the wife of Ed- 
ward Schremser, the well-known musical di- 
rector of that city. 

The G. A. K. numbers Judge Long in its 
ranks, of which he Avas Department (Jomman- 
der for one term ending in 1885. He is a 
member of the K. O. T. M., the Iv. P. and 
A. O. U. W. 



HTSTOKICAL SKETCPIES. 



117 



M O X T G O M E R Y, HOIs^. ROBERT 
MORRIS. Hon. Robert Morris Montgom- 
ery^ jnstice of the Supreme Court, is a native 
of this state, and has spent the greatest por- 
tion of his 50 years in Michigan. He was 
born in Eaton Rapids township May 12, 1849. 
The family originally came from Ireland, 
Robert Moiitgomery, the grandfather of the 
present Robert, having come from the north- 
ern part of that country in 18()(), settling first 
in JSTew York state, and coming to Michigan 
in 183(), when he located in Ingham county. 
Tie was a farmer. 

llie parents of Judge Montgomery form- 
erly lived in Eaton Rapids townshii), and it 
was here that tlie boy received the first prin- 
ciples of his education. He attended the lit- 
tle district schools during the winter terms, 
until the age of 12 years, when the family re- 
moved to Eaton Ra|)ids, and thus enabled him 
to attend the scliools of that village. 

At the age of 15, prior to his school teach- 
ing experience, he enlisted in the Seventh 
Cavalry, which was being organized, in Au- 
gust, 1861. He was sent to the encampment 
of the regiment at Jackson, Michigan, but 
three months later was discharged for disabili- 
ties caused by a prolonged fever. 

Until he was 20 years of age he taught 
school and worked at farming, except one year 
when he taught a summer school at Benton 
Harbor and Millburg, Michigan. 

During all these years he had been reading 
law, and had decided to make that his profes- 
sion. This idea originated with his mother 
when Robert was only 12 years of age. 
He became engaged in a controversy with an 
elder brother, during the time of the cele- 
brated Lincoln-Douglass debate. The two 
brothers argued for some time, until finally 
tlie younger proved his argument by quoting 
an article in the Constitution, whereupon the 
mother decided that Robert should be the 
lawyer of the family. 

While visiting friends at Hart, Oceana 
county, Michigan, he learned that F. J. Rus- 
sell, of that place, wanted a student in his 
office. He secured the place, and worked for 




HON. ROBERT MORRIS MONTGOMERY. 

his board for over a year, reading law and 
preparing himself to enter that profession, 
and on Jidy 25, 1870, he was admitted to 
the bar at (irand Haven, Michigan. His 
first law ofiice was opened at Pentwater, 
Michigan. In 1872 he was elected prose- 
cuting attorney of that county on the Repub- 
lican ticket. He was re-elected in 1874, and 
continued his practice at Pentw^ater until 
three years later, wdien he was appointed 
Assistant United States Attorney for the 
Western District. He removed to Grand 
Rapids. In 1881 he Avas elected judge of the 
Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, and was re- 
elected to that office in 1887. After a few 
months he resigned and formed a partnership 
with ilcGeorge Bundy, under the name of 
J\Iontgomery & Bundy. He was nominated 
l)y the Republicans for the supreme bench in 
1891, and elected by 5,000 majority. He 
look his seat January 1, 1892. 

In 1873 he married Miss Theo C. Wads- 
worth, of Pentwater, Michigan, and they have 
two children, Morris AV., wdio is a student 
reading law at Lansing, and Stanley D. is 
attending the University of Michigan. 



lis 



ME^T OF PEOGRESS. 







^^''-" ■' * 






^^^*>;.y ;.,-.; - 












f^R^'-V' .". ', ^ • 






Ke'^-'V-..' -^^' \''- 




•^^3 




^Khi 










BHg^^ 


^^i^H^n^S9HSI^^' "j^l^l 




I 



HON. FRANKLIN MOORE. 

MOORP], HOK. FRANKLI.^. One of 

the leading citizens of St. Clair, Mich., a man 
who has lived all his life in that city and 
tOAvnship, Franklin Moore, occnpies a high 
social statns among his fellow-citizens and is 
recognized by them as a pnblic-spirited busi- 
ness man, ready to aid any measure for the 
benefit of the city. 

He w^as born in the township of St. Clair, 
September 6, 1845. Up to the time he was 
14 years of age he attended the public school 
in his district, wdtli the exception of about 
two years, when he went to private schools 
in the city of St. Clair. After that he at- 
tended the AVillistou Seminary, at Easthamp- 
ton, Mass., going from there to Yale College, 
from which institution he graduated in 1868. 

Eetuming to Michigan he became actively 
engaged in the lumber business at Saginaw^, 
until 1875. In that year he bought a farm 
in his native township of St. Clair, which he 
operated for ten years. While still engaged 
in farming he purchased the St. Clair E-epub- 
lican and owned and edited that paper for a 
period of seventeen years. During this time 
he was twice appointed postmaster at St. 



Clair; first under the administration of Presi- 
dent (iarfield, serving in all about nine years. 
While editor of the liepublican, Mr. Moore 
with three other citizens joined in organizing 
the Diamond Crystal Salt Company, of which 
he was selected secretary and treasurer, and 
he still holds that position in this large in- 
dustry. 

He was elected a member of the board of 
education of the St. Clair city schools in 
1877, and remained such until 1883. In 
1894 he was again elected to this office and 
he is still a mend)er of the board at the 
present writing. In 1800 he was elected 
supervisor of the first ward. He was elected 
on the liepublican ticket in 1899 as a repre- 
sentative to the State Legislature. 

In politics, Mr. Moore has always been a 
Republican, but has maintained the right of 
being perfectly independent in following his 
convictions. On the subject of taxation he 
has always believed that there should be no 
favored classes, but that everybody should 
bear their full burden of taxation. 

June 11, 1873, Mr. Moore married Miss 
Emily Parmelee, daughter of William S. 
Parmelee, at Toledo-, Ohio. Mrs. Moore died 
June 20, 1898, leaving four children: Laura, 
aged 24, who fills her mother's place in the 
home; Franklin Moore, Jr., aged 22, book- 
keeper; Margaret, aged 20, a student in Oli- 
vet College, and Emily C, aged 15, attending 
school in Chicago. 

Mr. Moore attends the Congregational 
Church, of which he is a member, and be^ 
longs to but one fraternal order. The Knights 
of the Maccabees. 

Personally he is a quiet man, disliking con- 
troversy, and avoiding as far as possible dis- 
puting the opinions of others. This has been 
noticed in his editorials, but wdien some desir- 
able object beneficial to his city or state is to 
be obtained he is a man of remarkably strong 
purpose. His manner of life is quiet and un- 
obtrusive. In society or church work he 
does not make any effort to push himself, yet 
holds a leading position in both. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



119 



MOOKE, HON. JUDGE JOSEPH B. 

Joseph B. Moore traces his ancestry back to 
Wales. The family came from that country 
at a very early date and settled in INTew Jer- 
sey. They took an active part in the mak- 
ing of the history of the TTnited States, Mr. 
iloore's grandfatlier, Joseph B. Moore, be- 
ing a soldier in the last war between this 
country and Great Britain. 

The parents of Joseph B. Moore, the sub- 
ject of the present sketcli, located in Macomb 
county, Mif^Ligan, in 1833, and later moved 
into the soutlnvestern part of Lapeer countv, 
where the father engaged in the manufacture^ 
of household furniture and spinning-wheels. 
Josepli B. Moore ^VRS born at Commerce, 
Oakland county, Michigan, K'ovember 3, 
1845. He attended the district schools and 
assisted his father in his shop, and when the 
father bought a small sawmill tlie boy was 
given a man's work to do about the plant, and 
without compensation. 

At the age of 18 he attended tlie fall term 
at Hillsdale College and securing a teacher's 
certiiicate, commenced teaching school at ilos- 
cow Plains. The usual difficulties that faced 
teachers at that time were met with by Mr. 
Moore, but although one of liis arms had been 
broken shortly before he took the class, the 
teacher, by his firmness and tact, won over the 
ring-leader of the troublesome faction. The 
school was so successful it Avas continued be- 
yond the original term. He was solicited to 
take charge of the school at ^ 'Bough and 
Eeady Corners," in Wayne county, where he 
had a repetition of the experience at Moscow. 
When but 22 years old he was made principal 
of the village school at W^alled Lake, Oakland 
county. 

He read law while working in the saw- 
mill with his father, and also at intervals 
during his teaching days. He saved 
up enough money to spend a year in the 
law department of the University of Michigan 
in 1868-69. On leaving the University in the 
latter year he was made deputy county clerk 
of Lapeer county. He Avas admitted to the bar 
the following year, and his first case, which 




HON. JUDGE JOSEPH B. MOORE. 

was before tlie (^ircuit Court, gave him a repu- 
tation and a standing in the county. The case 
was a peculiar one. A dozen or more leading 
farmers liad been swindled by a hay fork 
agent, and their supposed receipts for pay- 
ments turned up in the shape of promissory 
notes. Young JVIoore was the oidy attorney 
v^ho did not hav^e any of these notes placed 
in his liands for collection, and the farmers 
making a ])ool engaged him. He made his 
maiden speech to a jury in the Circuit Court, 
and the result was a disagreement of the jury, 
and tlie case was never again tried. This 
brought many clients to the young attorney 
and he soon possessed a large practice. 

jMr. Moore held the office of prosecuting 
attorney for Lapeer county from 1873 until 
1877. In 1878 he was elected state senator. 
In 1880 he declined a renomination. In 
1888 he Avas elected circuit judge of the 
Sixth Judicial Circuit, Avhere he remained 
until 1896, when he Avas elected to the Su- 
preme Bench of Michigan, a position which 
he fills at the present Avriting. He married;, 
December 3, 1872, Miss Ella L., daughter of 
Jasper Bentley. 



120 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



I^^H 






^^P 






^^HT 


~'^^^l 




^■^ 












^^^1 


1 ^f:;: ^ 


fliK^.%^% 
i.^^IBh^'%- - 


H 


■ mm^ 





ELLIOT OLIVER GROSVENOR. 



GEOSVETsTOK, ELLIOT OLIVER, was 

born at Monroe, Michigan, October 26, 1863. 
He lived there and attended the public 
schools until 1878, when he entered the 
Michigan Military Academy from wdiich he 
graduated with the rank of senior captain, in 
1881. He attended the University of Michi- 
gan for four years and graduated from tlie 
literary department, classical course, in June, 
1885. He then took up the study of law and 
was admitted to the bar in 1886, but has 
never practiced that profession, devoting his 
attention mainly to agriculture and particu- 
larly to dairy interests, in which he has been 
actively engaged since 1890. 

In politics Mr. Grosvenor is a thorougli 
Republican, and served as chairman of the 
Monroe County Republican committee from 
1896 to 1900. In 1894-96 he held the office 



of circuit court commissioner of Monroe 
County. 

Governor Hazen S. Pingree a])pointed Mr. 
Grosvenor Dairy and Food Coinissioner Jan- 
uary 26, 1897, and rea|)pointed him for an- 
other term in February, 1899. 

In 1886, Mr. Grosvenor man-ied Miss 
Mary Hamilton, daughter of David P. Ham- 
ilton, of White Pigeon, Michigan. They 
have three children: Ira R., Ebenezer O., 
and Mary, aged resyvcctiA^ely thirteen, ten and 
eight years. 

Ira R. GJrosvenor, Mr. (h-osvenor's father, 
was one of the best known lawyers of South- 
ern Michigan, and died in 1899. His mother 
was Miss Sarah A. Wood, daughter of Joseph 
AVood, who was a Michigan pioneer and took 
a prominent part in Michigan territorial af- 
fairs. 



HTSTOmCAL SKETCHES. 



121 



O'BRIEN^, HON. MICHAEL. Hon. 
Michael O'Brien is a Canadian by birth bnt 
has lived in Michigan neariy all his life and 
since 1869 has been a resident of Alpena. 
Michigan. He was born on a farm near Belle- 
ville, Ontario, September 18, 1852, and se- 
en red a fair education in the parochial schools 
of Windsor, and at the old Detroit Bnsiness 
(V)llege. He learned the trade of shoemaker 
at Windsor, and in 18()8, at the age of 10 
started ont as a jonrneyman slioemaker, work- 
ing first at Trenton, and then in Lexington, 
Michigan. His father, Patrick O'Brien, for 
years an attache of the Windsor postoffice, 
died March 14, 18()1), leaving the motlier with 
six children withont any other means of sn]> 
])ort than that fnrnished by the eUlest boy, 
Michael. In Jnly, 18 (5 9, Michael fonnd work 
in Alpena, Alichigan, with John W. C^reigh- 
ton, and in 1872 bronght his mother aiid the 
children to that cit}^ and supported the family 
with his earnings. In 1874 he started in the 
shoe bnsiness on his own account and was on 
the road to success Avlien hre destroyed his 
store and stock in 1876. He was forced to go 
back to his bench and connnence all over 
again. 

In 1880 he was elected county clerk on the 
Democratic ticket, and returned to this office 
four times on the same ticket. While county 
clerk he took u]) the study of law and was 
admitted to the bar in 1887. 

In 1889 he })urchased the law and abstract 
business of the late J. B. Newton, and entered 
into partnership with AY. T. Sleator in the 
same month. In 1890 he was elected mayor 
of tlie city of Alpena and his administration 
\^'as one of the best that city ever had. Dur- 
ing his term the beautiful (^entral High School 
of Alpena was built and paid for, at a cost of 
$40,000, and many other valuable improve- 
ments were made. He was re-elected Mayor 
in the spring of 1900. 

Mr. O'Brien is a stockholder and a director 
in the Alpena Building & Loan Association, 
a director in the Alpena County Savings 
Bank, secretary and director of the Alpena 
Land Improvement Company, and a director 




HON. MICHAEL O'BRIEN. 

of the Aljiena Business Men's Association. He 
has been prominently identified with many 
progressive ^associations, namely, the Alpena 
branch of the National J^oan & Investment 
(V>mpany, of wliich he was secretary; presi- 
dent of the (Mtizens' Association and Law and 
Order League. 

Beside attending to his jn^sent business of 
real estate and loans, and his ])rofession as 
attorney-at-law, ^Ir. OM^rien finds time to de- 
vote to his ]:)olitical party. He has been the 
Democratic chairman of the judicial com- 
mittee of the I'wenty-sixth District, and also 
a member of tlie Democratic congressional 
committee of the Tenth District. Fraternally 
he associates with the (^atholic Mutual Bene- 
fit Association, Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
13enevolent Protective Order of Elks, U. L. 
(L, and (\ T. A. S. 

During his career in this state, for over a 
quarter of a century, Mr. O'Brien has seen 
Alpena grow from a small village to a mod- 
ern city. He is a member of the Catholic 
(Tiurch. 

He married Mary A., daughter of Mark 
Coppinger, at Bay City, Michigan, N^ovember 
28, 1882. 



122 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




HENRY EUGENE CHASE. 



CHASE, HENEY EUGENE. Ilenrv E. custonis at Grand Eapicls, which position he 
Chase, a direct descendant of the Aqiiilla filled for fonr years. 



Chase family of New England, was born in 
Calhoun county, Michigan, on the 25tli day 
of August, 1S63. 

The basis of his future success was laid in 
the public schools of this state, lie gradu- 
iMed from the high school at Lawrence, Mich- 
igan, and for a short time taught school in 
Van Buren county. 

Mr. Chase early formed the intention of 
taking up the law as a profession, and in 1886 
went into the office of Hon. Ered A. May- 
nard, of Grand Eapids, Michigan, where, 
after studying for two years, he was admitted. 
Soon after his admission to the bar he formed 



In 1894 he was temporarily appointed to 
the office of deputy oil inspector at Grand 
Eapids, wdiicli he subsequently resigned. 

January 1, 1895, Mr. Maynard appointed 
Mr. Chase assistant attorney-general, which 
position he held until the year 1897, when 
the Legislature created the office of deputy 
attorney -general. Mr. Chase was then ap- 
pointed deputy attorney-general and held the 
office until December 31, 1898, when Mr. 
Maynard's term of office as attorney-general 
expired. 

January 1, 1899, he was re-appointed by 



a partnership with Mr. Maynard, very pleas- ^^''^' ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^' ^ren as deputy attorney- 
ant and profitable business relations resulting general, which office he still holds, 
therefrom, which continued until after Mr. During his tenure of office as deputy attor- 
Maynard assumed the office of attorney-gen- ney-general, many important state cases have 
eral of Michigan. been under his supervision, the same receiv- 
In 1889 he w^as made deputy surveyor of ing careful and thorough attention. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



123 



DAVIS, HOX. GEORGE BURLTNG- 
HAM. Hon. Geo. Biirlingliam Davis has 
and is still contributing his share toward the 
progress of Michigan, being actively identified 
with some of the leading organizations of the 
state. He was born in Detroit, June 23, 
1858, and educated in the piiblic schools. His 
father, rlie late Dr. J. E. Davis, died in 1872, 
of a disease contracted while serving as sur- 
geon in the 27th Michigan Infantry. His 
grandfather was eludge Calvin Davis, of Ma- 
comb county, Mich., ar.d was a member of the 
Legislature in 1845, just fifty years before Air. 
Davis represented the same county in the sanu^ 
body. At the age of IG Mr. Davis became 
shipping clerk in the wholesale oil house of M. 
V. Bentley, at Grand Rapids. Previous to this 
he had earned his first dollar by driving piles 
under a bridge that had been raised by spring 
i'reshet. He remained as shipping clerk for 
one 3^ear, then joined his brother in the real 
estate and insurance business at Oxford, Mich- 
igan. A year later he became city salesman 
for Perrin & Bentley, wholesale oil dealers, 
in Detroit. Eor two years he was city sales- 
man and traveling man for this firm, leaving 
them to travel for the music firm of R. D. 
Bidlock, Detroit. While in this business Mr. 
Davis traded a second-hand piano for some oak 
timber in Macomb county, which deal even- 
tually resulted in taking him into the manu- 
facture of hardwood lumber. He went into 
this business when only 22 years old, in com- 
pany with Henry Oellrich, of Detroit, Davis 
furnishing the muscle and Oellrich the cash. 
In four weeks the young firm found itself 
$600 out. Business picked up, however, until 
in two years Davis was able to buy out his 
partner. More bad luck came along shortly 
after tins, for during the logging season an 
epidemic started among his horses, (piickly kill- 
ing thirteen. He managed to pull through the 
season, though, and eventually establish him- 
self on a firm footing. He has an excellent 
l)usiness in hardwood lumber now, at Utica, 
Mich. For fifteen years he has made a spe- 
cialty of piles, bridge, car and ship timber. 
His best and oldest patrons are the Michigan 




HON. GEORGE BURLINGHAM DAVIS. 

Central Railroad Company, the Detroit Ship- 
building Co. and the Michigan-Peninsular 
Car Co. In 1890 he organized the ITtica 
Hoop & I^umber C^o;, at Utica, Michigan. 
Idle scarcity of timber and the business depres- 
sion of '94 and '95 caused the closing of this 
])lant. 

He also organized the Detroit Sand & 
(iravel (Jo., and bought one of the largest sand 
and gravel pits in the state, being arranged to 
load 40 cars a day. Mr. Davis is now its sole 
owner. In 1898 he organized the Detroit, 
Ptica & Romeo Railway (Jo., with a capital- 
ization of $300,000, which is now building 
a street railway from Detroit to Romeo. Mr. 
Davis is president of the company and has an 
ofiice in Detroit. He is also interested in 
hardwood lumber at Utica and other Michigan 
points. Mr. Davis is a Republican. He was 
elected representative from the Second Dis- 
trict of Macomb county in 1895-96, re-elected 
1897-98, and elected state senator from the 
Twelfth District in 1899-00. He married 
Miss Marion St. John, daughter of S. P. St. 
John, and has one child, Lucile, aged seven 
years. 



124 



MEN or PROGRESS. 




JUDGE CI^AUDIUS BITC'HANAN GRANT. 

G R Ai^ T, J U 1 )( J E C ^ L A U I )1 U S B U- 
CITANAIS^. Judge Claudius Biieliaiian Grant 
was born in Lebanon, Maine, October 25, 
1835. His parents were small farmers strng- 
gling for a liveliliood on a stonc^-covered 
farm. As soon as old enongli to work, liis 
time was occnpied from spring nntil fall in 
the nsnal farm work, ])icking stones, hoeing, 
haying, liarvesting, etc. Dnring the winters 
he attended the district school, and in his 
fifteenth year went to Lebanon Academy 
(hn^ng s])ring and fall, Avhere he commenced 
preparing for college. At the age of 17 he 
tanglit a district school at $15 per month. 
After finishing tliat school he was oifered an- 
other the same winter in an adjoining town- 
ship, the pnpils of which had thrown the 
former teacher ont of the window. Yonng 
( J rant accepted. Dnring the second week of 
school, arrangements were made to serve him 
as they had the former teacher. A fight oc- 
curred, in which young Grant whipped the 
bully of the school, and was thereafter the 
admiration of the scholars as Avell as the peo- 
ple of the district. Mr. Grant completed his 
preparation for college at Lebanon Academy 



in the summer of 1855, and in October of 
that year entered the University of Michigan. 
After paying his tuition at this college he had 
jnst $60 left. Together with three others, he 
rented an attic over a shoe store, and 
Avent to housekeeping. During his freshman 
\^ear he sawed wood for one Mr. Clark, who 
kept a bakery, and for each hour's work re- 
ceived a loaf of bread. He also worked for 
Prof. Winch el, setting out trees, Avhich are 
still standing on the old Winchel place, north 
of the (\unpus. He graduated from the 
University in 1851), and for the next 
three years was principal of the Ann Ar- 
bor High School. In LSOl he organized 
a military company and was elected captain. 
Llie company was assigned to the 20tli Mich- 
igan Infantry. ]S"ovend)er 21, 1868, he was 
])romoted to major; December 26, 1864, to 
lieutenant colonel, and on the same day was 
made colonel of the regiment. After Lee's 
surrender, (V>lonel Grant resigned from the 
Army, and returning to the University of 
Michigan commenced the study of law. He 
was admitted to the bar in June, 1866, and 
began his practice in partnership with Ex- 
Governor Alpheus Eelch. In 1870 he was 
elected a member of the Legislature, and 
again in 1872. He was also elected regent 
of the University of Michigan in 1871, serv- 
ing as such eight years. 

In 1873 he remoAX^l to Houghton, Mich- 
igan, where in 1876 he was elected prosecut- 
ing attorney. When the 35th Judicial Circuit 
was organized, in 1882, Mr. Grant was made 
circuit judge, and he was re-elected to this 
oflSce in 1887. He became a resident of Mar- 
quette in 1886. Judge Grant has always 
taken a prominent part in the Republican pol- 
itics of this state. In February, 1898, he was 
nominated for Justice of the Supreme Court 
and elected by a large majority. 

June 13, 1863, Judge Grant married Miss 
(^aroline E., daughter of the late Governor 
Alpheus Eelch. They have four daughtei^s, 
tliree of whom are married. His daughter, 
irelen Grant Sparrow, has died since above 
sketch was written. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



CAMPBELL, IIOX. MILO DE WITT. 

It is a notewortliy fact that nearly all the men 
of progress in this state have started as school 
teachers and by that means have earned 
enongli to further their own edncation. Milo 
DeWitt Campbell is not an exception. His 
parents were ]ioor, living npon their small 
farm near Qnincy, Michigan. Here he was 
born October 25, 1851. In a limited way, 
his parents did all they conld toward his edn- 
cation. All of his time not spent in the dis- 
trict school he worked ont, on farms abont the 
neighborhood and wdierever he conld find 
work. He was indnstrions, and tlie first book 
he e^Tr bought was from monev he earned 
cleaning ont the stoncd-ii]) wells in the neigli- 
l)orhood, when he was 10 years old. "When 
abont 14 years of age, he attended school at 
Coldwater, working before and after school, 
Satnrdays and dnring vacations to snpport 
liimself, and boarding some of the time with 
an annt. At 15 he obtained a certificate to 
teach, bnt conld not find employment becans(> 
of his yonth. At 17 lie began teaching in 
district schools, and later at the village school 
in Gerard. He gradnated from the higli 
school at Coldwater, preparatorv to the I^ni- 
versity, and later at the State formal School 
at Ypsilanti. 

In 1873 he was nominated connty snperin- 
tendent of schools, althongh only jnst having 
passed the age of twenty-one. He was not a 
candidate for the place and was dinnbfonnded 
when he heard his name presented and con- 
firmed at the repnblican connty convention, 
Avith several opposing candidates. Tlie oppos- 
ing parties pnt np no candidate against him, 
and Mr. (Campbell received all the votes. 
He resigned before the expiration of liis 
term, and became a solicitor for a life in- 
surance company at a better salary. He 
afterwards entered the Normal School and 
immediately, npon finishing his course there, 
was employed by the same company at an in- 
creased salary. After a few months, how- 
ever, he began to study law with Lo^'erige & 
Barlow, C^oldwater. He was admitted to 
practice in January, 1877. After his admis- 




HON. MILO DE WITT CAMPBPJLL. 

sion to th(^ bar he located at Qiiincy. The 
first year he made $350, supporting himself 
[Uid wife from the same and saving fifty dol- 
lars, which he ]uit out at interest. Business 
soon l)egan to knock at his door and increased 
ra])idly until 1880, when he moved to Cold- 
water, the countv seat. He still continues 
the senior member of the firm of Campbell 
& Johnson, of that city, and has always had 
a large and lucrative practice. 

In 1873 and 1874 he was commissioner of 
schools of Branch county. In 1885 and 1887 
he was a member of the State Legislature. In 
the latter year he became private secretary to 
Gov. Luce and held the position until 1891. 
He has been ])resident of tlie state board of 
inspectors, having in charge all the penal and 
reformatory institutions of the state; a mem- 
ber of the railroad and street crossing board; 
insin'ance commissioner, and is now the presi- 
dent of the board of state tax commissioners. 
His lionu^ has ahvays l)een in Branch county. 

October 18th, 1876, Mr. Campbell married 
Marion, the daughter of (Tark C. Sears, of 
Quincy, Michigan, for whom he had formed 
an attachment in childhood. 



126 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




ARTHUR ORRIN BEMENT. 

BEMENT, AETHITE OEEm. One of 

the largest plants in the State of Michigan 
is that of E. Bement's Sons, at Lansing, 
ilichigan, which in 1871 only employed a 
force of three men, and to-day engages an 
army of employees and tnrns out yearly over 
a million dollars' worth of stoves and agricul- 
tural implements. 

Arthur Orrin Bement, the president of the 
E. Bement's Sons, manufacturers of heating 
and cooking stoves, agricultural implements, 
etc., was born at Eostoria, Ohio, May 22, 
1847. The boy was given the advantages of 
a good education in that city, and at the age 
of 14 he commenced tO' learn the trade of a 
moulder, earning $3 a week making plow 
points. At the end of five years he left this 
trade to take the position of cashier in the 
store of ex-Governor (Jharles Foster, of Eos- 
toria. When 18 years of age he became a 
teacher in the N^orris district school, near Eos- 
toria, at a salary of $30 per month, and after 
the usual fight with the larger scholars neces- 
sary to establish his superiority over them, 
he managed to hold his position through the 
term. 



He gave up teaching to help his father in 
the machine shop, as the factory at that time 
commenced the manufacture of plows, and 
he remained at this work until the spring of 
1869, when, in company with his brother, he 
came to Michigan to work in the moulding 
shop of ^s^icholas & Shepherd, of Battle 
(h'eek. After three months the brothers re- 
turned to Eostoria, and during the balance of 
the year worked in Maumee City and Toledo, 
Ohio. In September, 1869, father and son 
came to Michigan in search of a location in 
which to establish a plant. They first stopped 
at Grand Eapids, but the establishment for 
sale there being too large for their capital 
they went to St. Johns and Owosso, and 
finally located in Lansing. Here they rented 
a small foundry and started to manufacture 
plows and farm kettles. That same summer 
they purchased their present site. The father 
had about $4,000 in money, horses, wagons 
and past due notes, while A. O. Bement pos- 
sessed $500 in cash. With this small capital 
they started their now famous plant. Young 
Bement looked after the business interests 
and traveled around the state finding a mar- 
ket for the output of the foundry. In 1878 
the business increased to such an extent that 
they were forced to increase their plant, and 
at the same time they commenced to manu- 
facture stoves. Since that time the plant has 
had a yearly growth, and over 550 men find 
employment in it during the year. 

Arthur Orrin Bement was elected mayor of 
Lansing in 1893 and re-elected the following 
term. He was a member of the Lansing 
water works board in 1886-88. Mr. Bement 
lOtarried Miss Alice Jennison, daughter of 
Wm. E. Jennison, at Eagle, Michigan, Octo- 
ber 9, 1873. His first wife died in 1884 and 
in 1887 he married Miss Vina Lou Mosher, 
of Lansing, Michigan. His eldest son, Ed- 
ward Jennison Bement, is the travelling rep- 
resentative of the firm, and his two daughters, 
Dorothy and Eosalind, are living at home in 
Lansing. Mr. Bement has taken all the Ma- 
sonic degrees, including Knight Templar. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



127 



SAYEE, HO^^. IRA TERRY. In all his 

political life Hon. Ira Terry Sayre lias never 
been defeated for any office. He was only 
23 years of age when he first entered the po- 
litical field, as the township clerk of Elnsli- 
ing township, Michigan, a position he held 
for seven years. He was also treasurer of 
the school district for a period of six years. 
In 1890 he was elected president of the vil- 
hige of Elnshing, and at the expiration of his 
term he declined re-election. From 1888 
until 1892 he was jnstice of the peace in that 
village. In November, 1898, he was elected 
to the State Senate on the Repnl)lican ticket 
by a majority of 2,572, and in his own town- 
ship, which polled 574 votes, he received a 
majority of 400. 

Ira T. Sayre was born in Hector township, 
]\^ew York State, March 6, 1858. His par- 
ents moved to Michigan in 1804 and nntil 
be was eight years of age tlie boy's education 
was confined to the district schools, and the 
high school at Fliisliing until he reached the 
age of 20. The balance of liis time was 
spent in helping his father on their farm, 
gndibing, splitting rails, burning timber and 
getting the farm into shape for tillage. He 
graduated from the Flushing high scliool and 
eutered the Michigan Agricultural (Allege. 
Here he managed to secure five hours' work 
j)er day, and by working Saturdays he made 
enough money to pay his way while in col- 
k^ge. During the vacation period he taught 
the district schools. He entered the law class 
of the University of Michigan in 1880, and re- 
mained until the next year, but did not grad- 
uate. He went to. Lansing and took an ex- 
amination before the Supreme Court, wlierc^ 
he was admitted to the bar June 12, 1881. 

He commenced practice in Flushing, where 
he still resides. A chair, a few law l)ooks, a 
small talile and a debt of $350 was the outfit 
with which he started his practice. He was 
hopeful iind more so when on the first day 
that his sign was tacked up over the door he 
had a clienl. At the end of the month, when 
he footed up his books, he discovered that he 
had taken in as his month's work just $12.04. 




HON. IRA TERRY SAYRE. 

Out of tljis he had to pay $3 a week board, 
$5 a month office rent, besides postage and 
other incidentals. The following month busi- 
ness picked up to tlie extent of $4.70 above 
the preA'ious one. He became despondent, 
and at oue time he concluded that if receipts 
and expenses continued at the same ratio' he 
Avould go back to teaching scliool. The third 
month he tried a case in court and business 
became very good after that. 

He married Miss Julia F., daughter of 
Franklin A. Niles, of Flushing, Michigan, 
August 5, 1884, and three children have been 
tiie is«u-e of that marriage: Helen Lorraine, 
aged eight years; Sidney Fstelle and Frank 
Xiles, twins, aged two years. 

Mr. Sayre is a stockholder in the Union 
Trust ct Savings Bank at Flint, Michigan, 
and the First State & Savings Bank, at Flush- 
ing, Michigan. He is a member of the various 
Masonic bodies, including the Commandery, 
(^onsistory and . Shrine, and many other fra- 
ternal societies. For the last six years he has 
been one of the finance auditors of the Great 
Camp of the Knights of the Maccabees for 
Michigan. 



128 



MEJSr OF PKOGKESS. 




EDGAR SHAW WAGAR. 

WAGAK, EDGAK SITAW. Edgar Shaw 
Wagar earned liis own education^ and witli- 
oiit any aid save that of his own determina- 
tion to snceeed, backed by a fearlessness of 
hard work, forced liis w^ay to the front rank 
in the business workl. 

His parents located on a farm about three 
miles from (yonstantine, Michigan, in 1843, 
and it was here, on August 30, 1850, that he 
was born. "When large enough to work he 
found plenty awaiting him on the little farm, 
and he divided his time between that occu- 
pation and attending the schools of tlie dis- 
trict until he was 17 years old. That sum- 
mer he was employed as a shoveller with a 
construction train during the building of 
what is now the Chicago & West Michigan 
Railroad, between Grand Rapids and Sparta. 
He earned the first money he ever had in his 
life loading sand on cars at $1.25 a day and 
boarded himself out of this stipend, saving 
enough to pay for his tnition in the (\)nstan- 
tine high school until the following June, 
when he left school and Avorked with a 
threshing machine outfit around the county, 
returning to school when the threshing sea- 



son closed. This was his hardest schoolyear. 
He had very little money, and was compelled 
to live very close during the term. He did 
his own cooking in a little back bedroom, 
eating his diimers very often in a frozen 
state. Saturdays he earned some money 
chopping four foot wood at 65 cents per cord. 

The following summer he secured a posi- 
tion as clerk in a grocery store at Cedar 
Springs, Michigan, at $5 per week. He re- 
mained in that business for eight years, and 
in the summer of 1878 decided to start in the 
hardware business, with which he had some 
experience, on his own account. At that 
time Edmore was just coming into ex- 
istence as a prospective lumbering vil- 
lage, and he selected that place as the one in 
\vliich to connnence business. The town of 
Edmore was plotted in a dense pine forest and 
the main street was simply indicated by a 
marking of trees. He built a small store, and 
his first stock of goods did not make a good- 
sized load for a wheelbarrow. While in 
Cedar Springs he had met and married Miss 
Mary L. Pfeifler, of that place, and she fol- 
lowed him on his pioneer venture to Ed- 
]nore. He met her at McBride, the termi- 
nus of the new railroad, and together they 
walked through the darkness and rain a dis- 
tance of four miles to their new home. The 
first two years the young couple spent in Ed- 
more were made up of struggles and priva- 
tions, with pressing indebtedness, but he 
worked so hard that the neighbors used to say 
''Ed Wagar has set down only once in four 
years.'' The business was a success. 

In 1887 he sold his hardware business and 
commenced his lund)ering operations. In 
1893-95 Mr. Wagar was a representative for 
the First district of Montcalm county, and 
State senator from the Eighteenth district, 
1897-99. In 1897 Mr. Wagar found himself 
in condition to close up all his lumber deals 
and enter into his present business as private 
])anker under the name of E. S. Wagar's 
Rank, at Edmore, Michigan, in w^hich busi- 
ness he still continues and has been eminently 
successful. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



129 



IIILL^ JOSHUA. A good education has 
been tlie basis of success in the life of eloshua 
Hill, and to his parents and his own personal 
energy he is largely indebted for the position 
he has taken among the men of progress in 
this state, and the success which has gi^eeted 
his efforts in life. He was born in Newton, 
New Jersey, October 18, 1847, and educated 
in Newton Collegiate Institute and the 
Chester Institute in Chester, New Jersey. 
Like many of the other successful men of 
this state, Mr. Hill in his early life was a 
school teacher, being only 17 years of age at 
that period of his career. 

He has been interested in banks since 1805 
and is at present still engaged in the bankino- 
and real estate business. He assisted in the 
organization of several successful banks, 
namely, the Commercial Bank, also Wilson 
County Bank, at Fredonia, and the Oakland 
County Savings Bank, of Pontiac, Michigan. 
Mr. Hill went to Pontiac in 189t, his health 
being somewhat impaired at the time, and 
bought the fine home he now occupies in that 
city, with the intention of retiring from ac- 
tive business life. He has not entirely retired 
as yet, for he is now the president of the Oak- 
land County Savings Bank and of the Pontiac 
Investment & Promotive Company. 

To Mr. Hill Michigan is indebted for one 
of the most unique preserves in the State, 
Forest Lake Park, where many varieties of 
those wild animals that were rapidly becom- 
ing extinct before tlie march of civilization, 
may be found. He purchased the magnifi- 
cent tract of three hundred acres enclosing 
that beautiful sheet of water, Forest Lake, in 
1892, and it is stocked with wild game of 
every description. A large herd of Wyom- 
ing elk roam undisturbed over the park, and 
a small herd of buffalo has been added to the 
preserve in the past few years. Several 
varieties of duck inhabit the lake, and the 
woods are stocked with a number of English 
ring neck as well as Mongolian pheasants. 
Nothing has been done, in improving the 
park, that tends to roi) it of its wild and pic- 










JOSHUA HILL. 

turescpie character. Mr. Hill is vice-presi- 
dent of the Michigan Game Protective Asso- 
ciation, and has been instrumental in protect- 
ing the Avild game of Jlichigan from rabid 
inroads of the pot hunter. He is also a mem- 
ber of the Huron Mountain Club, which 
owns thirty square miles in game and fish 
preserves and trout and fisli liatcheries on the 
Upper Peninsula near Marquette. 

He is a mend)er of the executive commit- 
tee of the National Baidvors' Association of 
the TTnited States. Having been an extensive 
traveller in tliis country and abroad, he was 
appointed general agent of the American Ex- 
change in Europe, and for Messrs. Thos. 
Cook Sons, world's tourists. 

In 1882 Mr. Hill married Miss Helen Pre- 
witt, of Lexington, Kentucky, in that city, 
and six children, three boys and three girls, 
have been the issue of that union. In the 
literary world, he is known as a forcible 
writer, having contributed many articles to 
the press. His best known work is ^Thought 
and Tlirift,'' which was published in 1889. 

It is a strongly written book in which the 
writer has shown his own strength of char- 
acter and thought. 



130 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 



'^^^^^^fi^HIHHHHI 




^^^^^^^^^S^^^^^^H^^^^^^^I 




.-'-^^MBm— in 




t^ '■ ' -'^'''^^^^^■Hi^H 








' '-''^'#^^^^^^^^1 




'-'' ': -y ' ^^^S^^^^^^^M 




- ^'^^^^^^^^^H 


^B^'-- ^^^^^^^^^H 


:'':^''^-Z^^^^^M 




















' -^^^^B^B 




. ,>,,/>< K^^^mm|n|^^^^^H 








f ^-.'. ' -..y^^^MH^BI^^^^^^^B 




' ' '^"'ii^^^H^H^H^^^^^I 












' ' Pr^^^^H^KL^H 




> - ^'^#^^^^^Hi^hI 




;.^»BH 




H 





WILLIAM W. POTTER. 

POTTEK, WILLIAM W. AVilliam W. 
Potter was born at Maple Grove township, 
Barry county, Michigan, August 1, 1869. 
His father, Lucien B. Potter, was a farmer. 
He worked on the farm of his father until 
he was 21. When he was 20 years of age he 
attended the public school at Nashville, 
Michigan, starting in the ninth grade, but 
at the end of seven wrecks he was stricken 
with typhoid fever and compelled to return 
home. He resumed his studies at the same 
school the following year, and when spring ar- 
rived he worked on the farm until the follow- 
ing autumn. Then he received a third grade 
teacher's certificate, and taught school during 
the winter of 1890 in Assyria township, at 
$22 per month. He returned to the family 
farm in the summer, and in the fall attended 
the ISTashville high school for eleven weeks; 
then taught the same district again. That 



spring he w^as given a teacher's certificate of 
the first grade, and in April was tendered 
the position of principal of the city schools 
at Harrison, Michigan. He remained at the 
Xashville school until June, and then gradu- 
ated. He was graduated on Friday, and the 
follow^ing Monday entered the Summer Nor- 
mal School at Ypsilanti, where he remained 
until his school opened at Harrison, in Sep- 
tember, 1891. He taught there until vaca- 
tion, earning $550 a year. He was reap- 
pointed the following term at Harrison, at 
an increased salary. He followed this course 
the next year, and his salary was increased 
tc $850 a year. During all this time 
he had been studying law in the office of 
Hon. George J. C^ummins, at Harrison, and 
June 26, 1894, in Judge Dodds' court, he 
was admitted to the bar. During that sum- 
mer he again worked on the farm, and the 
following term entered the TJni versify of 
Michigan senior law class, and was graduated 
in June, 1895. 

He opened his law office in Hastings, 
Michigan, in August, 1895. He formed a 
partnership Avith J. Edmund Barrel! in T^o- 
vember, 1895, under the name of Barrell & 
Potter, which continued until August, 1896, 
when he became associated with Hon. Philip 
T. Col grove; the partnership continues up to 
date. 

In N^ovember, 1898, William W. Potter 
was elected on the Republican ticket to the 
State senatorship by a majority of 596. 

He married, at Harrison, Michigan, Mar- 
guerite, daughter of Charles J. Eichardson, 
and they have two daughters, Louise, aged 
five years, and Dorinne, aged nine months. 

Mr. Potter is a Royal Arch and Chapter 
Mason, and a member of the K. of P. 



IIISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



131 



OSBORN, CHASE SALMON. Cliage S. 
Osborn, Railroad Commissioner of the State 
of Michigan, was born in Hnntington connty, 
Indiana, Jamiary 22, 1860. The senior 
Osborn, George A., was one of the earlier 
pioneers of Indiana and a leading abo- 
litionist dnring the agitation of that qnestion. 
Mr. Osborn's grandfather, Captain Isaac Os- 
born, who navigated the Ohio Elver between 
the Ohio ports and New Orleans for many 
years, was one of the pioneers of the Ohio 
Valley, and his great-grandfather, John Os- 
born, was a doctor and chaplain in the Con- 
tinental Army dnring 1776 and 1780. 

Chase S. Osborn started his edncation in a 
little red school honse, and from 10 to 14 
years of age attended the pnblic schools of 
Lafayette, Indiana. He took three years at 
Pnrdne University, of that city. His first 
business venture was picking np old bones, 
rags and iron, which he sold to junk dealers. 
During his vacation, while attending tlie pub- 
lic schools, he had learned to set type, so he 
found a job in a newspaper office, setting type 
and turning the press on Saturday night, at 
$2 per week. He also peddled papers, and 
at one time had a monopoly of the sale of 
Chicago papers in Lafayette. 

At 16 he went to Chicago 1111(^1 vrith tlic 
idea that in that city he would make his for- 
tune. After hunting about for a time, he 
found work as a bell boy in a hotel, and so 
earned enough money to return home. Upon 
leaving the ^Tniversity he again went to Chi- 
cago and succeeded in finding a position as 
reporter on the Chicago Tribune, but he v^ent 
homo shortly afterwards to see his sister mar- 
ried and lost his place. He hung around 
in Chicago for about four weeks, and finally 
went to Milwaukee looking for another posi- 
iion. Here his money was exhausted, and at 
last he Avas com|)elled to go to work as a roust- 
about in the lumber yards of Durr & Eugee, 
unloading and piling lumber. He didn't 
like the job, but as it was a case of pile 
lumber, beg or starve, he piled lumber. Later 
he secured a place with the Evening Signal, 
of Milwaukee, and then with the Milwaukee 




CHASPJ SALMON OSBORN. 

Clironicle. For the next year he did general 
assignment '.vork on the Evening Wisconsin, 
and foi- tlio foll()\\'ing two years was city 
editor of the Seritiuel. Purchasing a paper 
in Florence, Wisconsin, he started in on his 
own account, publishing this paper for four 
years and selling out in tlie spring of 1887. 
In the fall of tliat year he bought tlie Sault 
Ste. J\Iarie News, of which he is still the owner 
and maiiag»:'r. 

He was State Came and Fish Warden from 
February t, 1895, until January 1, 1899, and 
was appointed Kailroad Commissioner Janu- 
ary 1, 1899. 

He married Miss Lillian C. Jones, .daugh- 
ter of Edward Jones, at Milwaukee, Wiscon- 
sin, May 7, 1881. Mr. Osborn is a Mason, 
having taken 32 degrees, and is a Knight 
Templar. He is a member of the Knights of 
PythiaJ, the B. P. O. E,, and I. O. O. F. He 
also belongs to the Fellowcraft Club, of De- 
troit, and the Detroit Club. 

Mr. Osborn is one of the leading and influ- 
ential citizens of Sault Ste. Marie. He held 
the position of postmaster there from 1890 
until 1894. 



132 



MEN OF PEOGRESS. 




GEORGE L. MAIiTZ. 

MALTZ, GEORGE L. Brooklyn, New 
York, is the birth place of George L. Maltz, 
who was born in that recent addenda to New 
York City, September 30, 1842. In 1845 
the family moved to Michigan, taking np 
their residence in the city of Detroit, where 
nntil he was 16 years of age young Maltz 
attended the public schools. 

His first employment Avas that of ticket 
agent in the office of the Grand Trunk Eail- 
road. When 18 years of age he enlisted in 
Company I of the Eourth Michigan Infan- 
try, and was made a corporal in that company 
when it was mustered into service. Septem- 
ber 1, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of 
sergeant, and a few months later was again 
promoted to first sergeant. 

His next step was to the rank of sergeant- 
major in March, 1862, and he was com- 
missioned second lieutenant of Company E, 
December 13, 1862. The official records 
show that he was the commanding officer of 
his company during nearly all the year of 
1863, and was acting adjutant of the regi- 
ment during a portion of that year and 1864. 
On March 21, 1864, he was commissioned 
first lieutenant of Co. E, Eourth Michigan 



Infantry, and he was mustered out with that 
rank, June 28, 1864. 

Lieutenant Maltz served through the war 
with the Eourth Michigan Infantry, being in 
the Army of the Potomac, and distinguishing 
himself several times during the campaign. 
His regiment saw considerable service and 
liard fighting and took part in some of the 
iiercest and most stubbornly contested 
engagements in the Civil War. On be- 
ing mustered out of service, Mr. Maltz was 
appointed cashier in the Internal Revenue 
Office at Detroit, a position which he filled 
most ably for several years. In 1872 he re- 
moved to Alpena, Michigan, where he 
opened a private bank under the firm name 
of George L. Maltz & Co. In 1883 he or- 
ganized and was made president of the 
x\lpena National Bank, which place he occu- 
pied until 1896. Erom 1876 until 1880 Mr. 
Maltz was Regent of the University of Michi- 
gan. He was made State Treasurer of 
Michig-an in 1886 and remained such until 
1890. He returned to Detroit from Alpena 
in 1892, and that same year he was a mem- 
ber of the Republican National Committee 
at the Minneapolis Convention. 

In 1898 Governor Pingree appointed him 
State Bank Commissioner, in which position 
he is acting today. 

Mr. Maltz was the chairman of the com- 
mittee that located and dedicated the monu- 
ment placed by the state of Michigan in the 
battlefield of Gettysburg, in commemoration 
of the Eourth Michigan Infantry. The 
monument was erected in 1898. 

While in Alpena he was thrice elected 
mayor of that city. 

He married Elvira E., daughter of Joseph 
P. Whiting, of Detroit, at the close of the 
war in 1866, and is the parent of three daugh- 
ters. Cora is the wife of the late Hon. Albert 
Pack, of Detroit; Mable is the wife of J. G. 
Earwell, of the same city, and Grace lives 
with her parents. Mr. Maltz has taken all the 
degree in Masonry, is a K. T., and a Shriner 
of Moslem Temple, Detroit. He belongs to 
the Loyal Legion and Detroit Post, G. A. R 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



133 



STEARTs^S, HOAL JUSTUS SMITH. 
Justus Smith Stearns comes from old Ver- 
mont stock, his forefathers having been 
farmers and woolen manufacturers in the 
Green Mountain State for many generations. 
His father, Heman S. Steams, was a farmer 
in Chautauqua county, 'New York, and 
owned and operated a small water-power 
sawmill. Justus Stearns attended the dis- 
trict schools near his home, getting thre(^ 
months' education in summer and three in 
winter, and when he was old enough to work 
he was given a job in his father's mill on 
Saturdays, wlieeling saAvdust and piling slabs. 
The father's work increased and as he needed 
some one to help him in his mill, young 
Stearns abandoned all his ideas of getting ii 
city school education and left school to join 
his father. For six years he worked in the 
saw mill, tallied lumber, piled and loaded it, 
until, as his father remarked, he had the busi- 
ness thoroughly ^'pounded into him." 

In 1861 the father determined to move to 
Erie, Pennsylvania, where, together with his 
son, he established a retail lumber yard, which 
turned out to be a most profitable under- 
taking. 

During the oil excitement of 1860-63 the 
elder Stearns invested considerable money in 
oil lands, where he sank a great many wells 
and eventualb/ a great deal of money. Those 
were days when fortunes were made and lost 
rapidly, and in 1864 the father failed and the 
son, when affairs were settled, found himself 
in almost the same predicament. He re- 
moved to Michigan in 1875 and found work 
in the office and general store which was con- 
nected with the lumbering plant then oper- 
ated by Mrs. E. B. Ward, where by working 
with his customary zeal he was soon advanced 
to a position paying him $75 per month and 
expenses. He remained with the company 
four years, and in 1881 determined to branch 
out in the lumbering business on his own 
account. He controlled at that time a tract 
of land containing six hundred acres, lying 
east of Ludington, and having saved $3,000 
he built a small saw mill capable of cutting 




HON. JUSTUS SMITH STEARNS. 

thirty-five thousand feet of lumber per day 
and employing about thirty men. The place 
where ihe first mill was put up is now known 
as Stearns. 

In 1891 Mr. Stearns built a large mill on 
the Fland)ea!i Reservation in Wisconsin, and 
in 1892 erected another one on the Odanali 
Iteservation near Ashland, in the same state. 

Mr. Stejims ha^ recently acquired the ex- 
tensive mills and plant known as the E. B. 
Ward ])ropei'ty, at Eudington, aMichigan. 
With these several ])lants he is now manufac- 
turing 150,()00,00() feet of lumber per year, 
making liim by far the largest manufacturer 
in the state. 

Mr. Stearns was an elector from Michigan 
in 1891, when Gen. Harrison received the 
Presidential nomination, and in 1898 he was 
elected Secretary of State in Michigan, in 
which capacity he is acting at the present 
writing. His wife was formerly Miss Pauline 
Eyon, daughter of Robert Lyon, of Con- 
neaut, Ohio, where they were married in 
1871. Their only son, Robert Stearns, is 
connected with his father in business, and is 
a well-know]i designer of title pages for lead- 
ing pubHcations in the United States. 



134 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




JOSEPH T.EVI COX. 

COX, JOSEPH LEVI. Joseph Levi 
Cox, coinmissioiier of labor, state of Michi- 
gan, was 1)0111 at Oxford, Illinois, Mareli 24, 
1858, and was educated in tlie free schools 
of Indiana. His grandfather, Joseph (^ox, 
was one of the earliest pioneers of Indiana, 
settling near where Kichiiiond is located to- 
day, when there was not a white settler within 
30 miles of him. 

While attending school, yonng Cox also 
tnrned his attention toward helping swell the 
family exchequer by selling papers on the 
streets when his little arms were scarcely 
long enough to encompass the bnndle. In 
the fall of 1878-9 he first cnnie near to the 
machine that in after years he was to do so 
mnch toward perfecting. He secured a posi- 
tion as printer's devil on the White County 
Banner, at Reynolds Station, Indiana, and 
worked at that until his family moved to La- 
fayette, Indiana. At the age of 15, while 
still a schoolboy in the Lafayette schools, he 
founded the ^^Monthly Bee,'' which was i'dv^r- 
ably received. In 1873 he launched the 
^^Weekly Bee," and as this venture also met 



with success he was encouraged to, three years 
later, issue the ^^Bee" as a one-cent daily 
paper. lie got on the opposite side of the suc- 
cessful county political party, and gave up 
journalism to devote his attention to perfect- 
ing a web printing press. 

Shortly after this, June 3, 1877, he mar- 
ried Miss Katherine Sherwood. The same 
year he built the first wood printing press — a 
machine for printing on wood, tin or glass. 
In 1878 he invented two flat-bed web printing 
presses, duplex in action, for job work. He 
took out his first American patent in 1879. 
In that year, also, he was made city editor of 
the "Daily Journal," in Lafayette, Indiana, 
a. position he held until 1882. In 1883 he 
founded the '^Daily Call," but during all this 
time he liad not relinquished his ideas on 
printing presses. In 1883 he placed his in- 
ventions with a company — The Duplex Print- 
ing Prcos Company, of Battle Creek, Michi- 
gan, capitalized at $300,000. This company 
built the first successful double web printing 
press in 1885. During his connection with 
tlie company Mr. (^ox took out many foreign 
and American patents. 

Mr. Cox was elected mayor of Battle Creek 
on the Republican ticket in 1892-3, and it was 
under his administration that the water works 
supply was perpetuated. Later he opened an 
office as patent solicitor and mechanical ex- 
pert in patent causes, and found himself very 
much in demand. One day a sign was found 
on his office door, which read, ^^Closed until 
Pingree is elected," and from that time on 
Mr. Cox devoted his whole time to aiding 
the election of II. S. Pingree. After this was 
accomplished he served for some time as chief 
clerk in the railroad commissioner's office, and 
in May, 1897, he was appointed commissioner 
of labor, to which position he was reappointed 
for second term in L899. He has five chil- 
dren, his son Earl being a clerk at Lansing, his 
daughter Stella the wife of S. Evart Holmes, 
of St. Louis, and his other three children, Jay, 
Mabel and Genevieve, living with their 
parents at Battle Creek, and attending school 
in that city. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



135 




HON. PRANK ARTHI^R HOOKKR. 

HOOKER, HON. FRANK ARTHUR. 

In the history of the United States the name 
of Hooker will be found to have played an 
important part. It was the Reverend Thomas 
Hooker who, in 173G, led liis little colony 
into and settled the town of Hartford, Con- 
necticut, and it was this same Hooker who 
was the first coh^nist to formulate a constitu- 
tion for government by tlie people. Hooker 
was obliged to go to the JS^etherlands before 
coming to Amei*ican to escape the fury of 
Archbishop Laud on account of Hooker 
preaching non-conformist sentiments while in 
England. 

To the Reverend Thomas Hooker, the sub- 
ject of this sketch, Judge Frank Arthur 
Hooker, traces his ancestry. Judge Hooker 
was born June 16, 1844, at Hartford, Con- 
necticut, in which city his father was at one 
time a prosjDerous contractor, but meeting 
with business reverses he was forced to leave 
the home of his ancestors and remove to De- 
fiance, Ohio. Here young Hooker attended 
the district schools, and his education was 
furthered by an elder sister, who had been 
educated in Hartford. It was the boy's origi- 



nal intention to embark in the mercantile 
business, and with this end in view he at- 
tended a local business college, where he 
learned bookkeeping and penmanship. When 
1 5 years of age he also began to learn the 
trade of mason under his father, and in the 
winter time he taught school. He worked 
steadily at this trade during the summer 
months until he entered the University of 
^richigan. 

He continued teaching school and working 
as a mason until the autumn of 1863. One 
day he consulted with his father as to the 
advisability of studying law, and the elder 
Hooker, rather proud of the boy's ambition, 
told him to go ahead. For over 200 years 
the Hookers, with the exception of Judge 
Hooker's father, had been professional men, 
and as the young man had been reading law 
during his school teaching days he decided to 
follow in the footsteps of the Hookers who 
had gone before him, and adopt the law as his 
profession. He entered the University of 
Michigan in 1863, taking the law course, and 
graduated in 1865. 

His first venture in his new profession was 
made in liryan, Ohio, where, with a partner, 
he established a law practice which* was a 
success the first year. At the end of the year 
Mr. Hooker decided to return to Michigan, so 
the partnership was dissolved, and leaving 
Bryan, Mr. Hooker went to Charlotte. 

In 1867 he w^as made county superinten- 
dent of schools for Eaton county, and in the 
years 1872-6 he held the position of prosecut- 
ing attorney in the same county. He was 
]nade circuit judge of the fifth judicial circuit 
in 1878, and elected to supreme justice in 
1892. He occupies the supreme bench at the 
present writing. 

He belongs to the Masonic fraternity. 
In 1868 Judge Hooker married Emma E. 
Carter, daughter of William Carter, of Defi- 
ance, at that city. Both his sons are follow- 
ing professional careers, Harry Eugene 
Hooker, the eldest, being an attomey-at4a\v 
in Lansing, Michigan, and Charles Eggleston 
Hooker a physician in Grand Rapids. 



136 



MEiST OF PEOGKESS. 




J. EDGAR ST. JOHN. 

ST. JOHN, J. KDCIAR. As superinten- 
dent of tlie Miehigan School for Boys at Lan- 
sing-, Mieliigan, J. Edgar St. John is doing his 
share towards the fntnre of the state of Michi- 
gan by helping to make of the boys nnder his 
charge the kind of men needed in the prog- 
ress of every conntry. He has held this posi- 
tion six years, managing its affairs with gen- 
tleness and sk'ill and win.ning praise from all 
who have ^x^atcdied liis work since he has been 
superintendent of the institution. 

J. Edgar St. John was born at Somerset, 
Hillsdale county, Michigan, May 30, 1848. 
His father was a brick and stone mason, who 
came to Michigan in 1830, locating at Brook- 
lyn, elackson county, where he followed that 
profession. Young St. John was not given 
much chance to go to school, for he was taken 
away at J4 years of age, and put to work to 
learn the moulding and machinist trades. For 
over a year he was employed at this trade in 
the foundry of George H. Felt, of Brooklyn, 
during which time he earned $6 a month. 
His work was extremely arduous. He 
brushed and cleaned castings for twelve 
months, and at the end of that time was given 



a little respite from his hard labor and sent to 
visit relatives in Connecticut. Here he was 
taken down with brain fever, and hovered for 
a long time between life and death, being 
unable to work for nearly a year. As soon 
as he could get about he secured a position at 
$5 a week in a provision house and grocery. 
At 17 years of age he earned $50 per month, 
including his board. 



Returning to Michigan a few 



vears 



later. 



he entered the employ of D. L. Grossman at 
Dansville, Michigan, and later on entered into 
partnership with D. I^. Grossman. At the 
expiration of three years of this partnership 
he bought out the interests of Mr. Grossman, 
and taking another partner again started in 
business. The new firm went into debt to 
the extent of $4,500, and in scarcely a year 
Mr. St. John found that in order to save him- 
self he was compelled to buy out his partner. 
Alone he managed and conducted the busi- 
ness for another year, clearing off some of the 
indebtedness, but he was forced to sell out the 
business, owing to ill-health. He had on his 
books over $4,500, of which he managed to 
collect all except some $90, and in less than a 
year he had paid off all his creditors. 

In 1873 he accepted a position as overseer 
in the cigar shop at the Industrial School, but 
after six months had to vacate ou account of 
bronchitis caused by inhaling tobacco dust. 
During the following year he was assistant 
farmer; then followed a promotion to over- 
seer of the chair shop, a position which he 
held until again promoted to bookkeeper and 
superintendent's clerk, where he remained 
eleven years. During this time Mrs. St. 
John w^as teacher in cottage No. 2, where they 
were located. Mr. St. John then left the in- 
stitution, moving on his farm near the Agri- 
cultural Gollege, after having filled nearly 
every subordinate position at the Industrial 
School. 

August 1st, 1893, Mr. St. John was ap- 
pointed to the office of superintendent and his 
wife matron, positions which they have occu- 
pied since, looking carefully after the 650 
boys in the school. 



HISl^OEICAL SKETCHES. 



137 



bacon; M. IX, HON. AUGUSTUS 
EGBERT. It required a strong constitution 
to pass through the many ills tliat bestrewed 
the path of Augustus Egbert Bacon, and an 
equally strong amount of reserve will power. 
Dr. Bacon is a direct descendent of tlie 
John Bacon family of Massachusetts, his 
grandfather, Johu Bacon, lived in Vermont, 
and his father, Royal Bacon, in Macomb 
County, this state. A. E. Bacon was born 
May 7, 1841, at Euclid, Ohio. His father 
moved to Ray Center, ilacoud) (\)uuty, in 
1850 and rented a woolen mill, and afterwards 
built a saw^mill. Young l^acon worked for 
his board and clothing in the mills, and when 
his father ])urchased a fai-m he was given em- 
ployment clearing it u]), cutting down tind)er, 
making rails and stave bolts. He worked at 
this from his 14th to his 18th vear, receivinir 
no money except that which lie earned himself 
from tlie sale of black salt made from the 
ashes. He attended district school during the 
vv^inter montlis, and his mother, an educated 
woman, did much toward educating lier cliil- 
dren. When 19 years of age young Bacon 
had saved enough money working as a farm 
hand to take a term at the Disco Academy, 
where he se(3ured a two-year teacher's certifi- 
cate. He taught school after this at Swan 
Creek, St. (lair C^ounty, and ihe following 
suinmer worked in the store of John IfcElroy, 
in that ]dace. He and his enijdoyer had words 
about feeding a horse, and leaving the jol) the 
young man walked to New Baltimore, where 
he found work binding oats. Here he came 
in contact with a recruiting officer, one George 
Robison, and enlisted in Company E, 22nd 
Michigan Infantry, under Captain Alfred 
Ashley. The regiment was ordered to the 
front on the 1st of Septend)er and on the 5tli 
participated in the battle of ''Cabbage Hill." 
At N"ashville the young soldier was taken 
with mumps and later brain fever, but recov- 
ered. Next came smallpox, and when he re- 
covered sufficiently to carry a musket again he 
was sent to rejoin his regiment, arriving just 
in time to engage in the battle of Chicka- 
niauga, where liis regiment was almost annihil- 




IIOX. ATGlTSTrS EGBERT BACON, M. D. 

ated, there being only 100 to answer roll call 
after the battle. He served through the At- 
lanta cami^aign and was mustered out in N^ash- 
ville in. 18()5. Returning to Michigan, he 
attended tlie high school at lltica until 1866, 
when he taught school and earned enough 
monc^y to pay his way through the University 
of Michigan. He liad read medicine with 
Dr. E. N. Harris, of Disco, and took up the 
study in t)ie University. He studied during 
1866-67, practiced a year and in 1868 at- 
tended tlie University of Philadelphia, from 
Avliich he graduated in 1869. Going back to 
Disco, Michigan, he bought out Dr. Harris 
and ])racticed there for 12 years, removing 
during the montli of January, 1883, to Sault 
Ste. MariC; where he now resides. He was 
elected Mayor of Sault Ste. Marie on the Re- 
publican ticket in 1897, and was alderman 
during the years of 1884-85. 

Dr. Bacon married Josephine, daughter of 
William Moe, of Disco, Michigan, March 17, 
1868. Dr. Bacon became a Mason in 1865 
and is one of the oldest in Sanlt Ste. Marie. 
He is also a member of the K. P., Eastern 
Star, G. A. R., and the I. O. O. F. 



138 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




CHARLES EDWARD BREWSTER. 

BREWSTER, (^HARLES EDWARD. 

Chief Deputy (lanie Warden of Michigan 
Charles Edward Brewster was bom in Fre- 
mont, Shiawasee connty, Michigan, January 
4, 1858. Flis parents both died when he was 
but four years okl, and he was taken into the 
family of an uncle and adopted by him. 
When he was 12 years of age he ran away 
from home^ and found a position as a casli 
boy with ^Newcoml), Endicott & Company, 
of Detroit, Michigan, where he remained for 
seven weeks, earning and living upon $2 a 
week, until his uncle located liim and took 
liim back home, lie was sent to the district 
school near his home, and later to the public 
schools at Byron, Michigan, from which he 
graduated in 1874, at the age of 16. 

Through the influence of the then Con- 
gressman Begole, he was then appointed ship's 
writer in the United States navy and assigned 
to the United States cruiser Tuscarora, which 
was detached to pursue deep-sea soundings in 
the Pacific ocean. For three years he en- 
gaged in this service, during which period 
he visited almost every port between Sitka, 



Alaska, and Hobart Town, Tasmania. At 
the end of this time he was appointed cap- 
tain's clerk and assigned to the cruiser Pen- 
sacola, under Captain John Irwin. The Pen- 
sacola was the flag ship of the Asiatic squad- 
ron, then having lieadquarters at San Fran- 
cisco, Cal. While on this vessel he visited 
China, Japan, tlie Sandwich Islands, and the 
ports of western South America. He re- 
signed in 1884, and returned home to Byron, 
Michigan. The following year he removed 
to a small station, named after himself, in 
Grand Traverse county, and began the manu- 
facture of hardwood lumber. The business 
did not seem to prosper, and he had very little 
liking for it, and two fires caused him to give 
it up in 1889, with much experience and less 
capital. That fall he was appointed United 
States deputy marshal in the western district 
and assigned to the postoffice depredation 
work. He had an interesting experience 
while arresting a counterfeiter in a lumber 
camp about eight miles from Yuma, Lake 
county, and was shot by his man, but while 
lying wounded on the ground he managed to 
shoot in return and secured the counterfeiter. 
This occurred on Thanksgiving day, and he 
had to drive with his prisoner about eight 
miles to the settlement. In the four years pre- 
vious to the inauguration of the present game 
warden system only 56 convictions were made 
for violation of the laws, and under the first 
four years this was increased to 560 convic- 
tions. Under tlie administration of Chase S. 
Osborn, there were 1,960 convictions secured. 
Mr. Brewster has been connected with this 
department since its inauguration. 

He has held the following political offices : 
Postmaster at Lake Brewster, 1887-94; jus- 
lice of peace, 1888-92; chief deputy United 
States marshal under James R. Clark, 1890- 
1)4; deputy game warden under William Al- 
den Smith, 1887; made chief deputy game 
varden under Charles S. Hampton, re-ap- 
pointed in J 897 by Chase S. Osborn, and re- 
appointed in 1899 by Grant M. Morse. He 
is a Chapter Mason, and an Elk. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



139 



FEOST, HOIsr. GEOEGE EDWAED. 

The present prosecuting attorney of Cheboy- 
gan, Michigan, George Edward Frost, has 
been prominently identified with the Eepub- 
lican party in this State, and is an attorney 
well versed in his profession, a successful 
prosecutor and a man of sharp insight, judg- 
ment and discretion. He has held his pres- 
ent office for three successful terms, during 
which he has won many cases for the people 
and established an excellent record. 

His father, Alonzo P. Frost, came to Pon- 
tiac from near Syracuse, in New York state, 
aud settled in that city in 1836. His grand- 
father, elosiah, v/as an old resident in New 
York state, the family originally coming from 
Alassachusetts, where the Frosts lived for gen- 
erations, taking part in the making of the 
early history of the American colonies and 
serving vith the revolutionary army. 

George Edward Frost was born at Pontiac, 
Michigan. March 24, 1851. His education 
was received in the district schools near home, 
the public schools of Pontiac. During his 
vacations he worked on the farm, and wdien 
21 years old, in 1872, received a second grade 
teacher's certificate. He taught in various 
schools about the county that year, and for tlie 
three following years lie divided his time be- 
tween teaching the young idea during the 
winter months and studying law in the office 
of Judge A. C. Baldwin, at Pontiac, during 
vacation jieriods. He studied at night when 
teaching school, and worked hard to equip 
himself for the profession in which he now 
holds such a prominent place. In 1874 he 
read law in the office of the Hon. Alfred 
Eussel, of Detroit, and was admitted to the 
bar of the Wayne County Circuit Court, Sep- 
tember, 1875. 

That fall he went into partnership with S. 
Slessinger, taking an office in the Seitz Block, 
Detroit. In 1877 he went into business 
alone, removing to (^heboygan in the spring 
of 1879 and establishing himself in practice 
in that city. He had $15 capital on which 
to do this, and some law books. The young 
attorney did not flourish in his profession for 







k - •'" -.:. 






Pi 


1 






1 


^^^^^^^^^^^ .^^^1 


1 



HON. aEORGE EDWARD PROST. 

the first Duaith, and his receipts amounted to 
just $4 at the end of the month, mostly for 
conveyauciiig. 1'lie fourth month business l^e- 
gun to pick up, and after that the returns were 
larger and liis practice increased monthly. 

He was the first Eepublican to be elected 
to the office of president of the village, and 
was re-elected twice, serving in 1883-84-85. 
Mr. Frost Avas United States commissioner 
from 1881, until 1901. He was an alternate 
and attended the National Eepublican Con- 
vention at Minneapolis, and has been promi- 
iiently mentioned for Congress from his dis- 
trict. Mr. Frost was first married in Septem- 
ber, 1881, to Mollie L. Bailey, daughter of 
Dr. eJno. H. Bailey, of Mackinaw Island. She 
died in November, 1882. Mr. F'rost's second 
wife was Mrs. Emma C. Freeman, daughter of 
flolin AVaterman, the pioneer lumberman of 
(^heboygan, in that city, April, 1885. He has 
three children, George Edward Frost, eJr., 
aged 13; Stanley Howard, aged 11, and Eus- 
sel Waterman, aged 4. 

He is a Mason, and belongs to the Knights 
of Pythias. 



140 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




JABEZ BUNTING CASWELL. 

CASWELL, JABEZ BUNTING. The 

Caswell faipily, of which eJabez Biiiitiiig (^as- 
well is a member, lived for many generations 
ill the Mohawk valley of New York state, and 
it was ill llerkimer county of that state that 
on Deeemher 10, 1858, the subject of this 
sketch was born. At the age of 4 his family 
moved to Rome, New York. lie attended 
the Rome academy until he reached the age 
of 17, and then found employmemt in a shoe 
store. When he became of age lie started 
west for the Dakotas with the intention of 
going into business, but stopped on the way to 
visit a brother in Lidianapolis. He went 
from there to St. Louis, Mo. I'he Iron 
Mountain Express was being organized then 
and the young man was tendered a position 
with that company. He was bill clerk for 
one year, and then was made a messenger, 
running between St. Louis and Texarkana, 
afterwards on the Texas Pacific railroad from 
Texarkana to Abileen. These were days 
when train robbers flourished, and when to be 
an express messenger meant taking one's life 
in one's hands. Mr. Caswell was lucky, how- 
ever, and did not meet with train robbers. 



The Iron Mountain Company was finally 
merged into the Pacific Express Company, 
and in 1882 Mr. Caswell came to Michigan, 
visiting a friend in Bay City. The friend 
was in the restaurant business, so all that win- 
ter Mr. Caswell took the management of this 
establishment. The next season, as he had 
always been a lover of the great American 
game, he organized the Bay City base ball 
team. The next season he helped organize 
the ^Northwestern League, w^hich at one time 
was a promising organization. He broke his 
arm in a game that season and was forced to 
quit the sport. 

He then drifted into politics and held many 
minor city ofiices in Bay City. He was 
constable for several years, after which he 
was made sidewalk inspector by a republican 
common council, and a democratic mayor 
vetoed the appointment. He continued, how- 
ever, as sidewalk inspector and the council 
^^oted him his salary, which the mayor 
promptly vetoed, but the Supreme Court sus- 
tained the counciLs action. He was after- 
wards appointed assistant street commissioner 
by the common council and held that position 
for tliree years. Mr. Caswell is one of the 
first Pingree men in Bay county, and was 
made salt inspector January 26, 1897. He 
still occupies this position, having been re-ap- 
pointed by Gov. Pingree January 26, 1899. 

Eebruary 28, 1895, he married Clara 
Worth at Bay City, and Warren, aged two 
years, is their child. 

Mr. Caswell as a member of the B. P. O. 
E., the K. P. and the Modern Woodmen of 
America. He is popular with his party, and 
he may justly feel a pride in his official rec- 
ord. He has always had an independent 
spirit, even when a boy, having on two occa- 
sions left home to learn a trade, first that of a 
printer, but was sent back to school by his 
parents. On another occasion he started to 
learn the business of an auctioneer, but not 
liking it, he returned home. ^^Of all the 
diflicult positions I have held the hardest was 
that of reporting the first exposition in Detroit 
for The Detroit Newa," Mr. Caswell said. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



141 



PELTON, HO?sL DAVID CLARK. 

The Pel ton familj^ owes its existence in this 
country to John Pelton, who, born in Essex, 
England, in 1616 came to America and set- 
tled in Boston, Mass., in 1630. He removed 
to Dorchester 35 years later and became by 
grant a joint owner in the Dorchester patent, 
receiving 30,000 acres of land. He was one 
of the 47 owners of the ''Great Lots.'' 

David Clark Pelton, the subject of this 
sketch, was born in La Grange, Ohio, April 
16, 1837^ where he worked on his father's 
farm and attended school. Later, Avhen 18 
years of age, he worked on a farm in Char- 
lotte, Mich. After a short time in the latter 
place he started to walk to Ionia, Mich., and 
from there traveled dovrn the river on an old 
scow to Grand Haven. AYalking through the 
pine w^oods of Oceana County he slept one 
uight in a house at the mouth of Stoney 
Creek, and was awakened during the night by 
an offer of employment loading shingle bolts 
on a schooner at a shilling per hour. Although 
he was weary with a 35-mile walk he dressed, 
and worked a stretch of 30 hours. 

October 29, 1858, he married Ellen, the 
daughter of Hezekiah Williams, at Benona, 
Michigan. Working steadily and investing 
every $40 he could save into as many acres of 
pine, he soon began to accumulate a little 
property. In 1861 he removed to Racine, 
Wisconsin, where he started manufacturing 
shingles, and prospered. He invested a por- 
tion of his capital in the purchase of part of 
a lake vessel, and in 1865 was considered 
well off financially. Purchasing a larger in- 
terest in the vessel and mortgaging his busi- 
ness to do so proved an unprofitable invest- 
ment, for the boat was lost and with it every- 
thing he had, as it was not insured. Re- 
turning to Pentwater, Michigan, he worked 
in a shingle mill until he lost his index finger 
and was given the position of foreman of 
the out-door Avork. He saved enough in 1873 
to purchase a towing tug, and was doing a 
good towing business on the lakes when the 
tug blew up and left him almost as poor as 
when he first started. Going back to the 




HON. DAVID CLARK PELTON. 

woods again he worked as foreman for 
Charles ]\rears from 1874 until 1880, then 
went into lmn])ering operations, purchasing 
a half interest in the A. R. l^eck Company 
retail yards at Chicago. In 1885-88 he oper- 
ated in hake county, Michigan, and later 
bought tlie Mattoon and Robinson sawmill at 
Cheboygan, which he still owns and operates, 
manufacturing about twenty-five million feet 
per annum. 

Mr. Pelton is a Republican. He was 
elected nuiA^or of (^heboygan in 1899, having 
been an alderman in 1893-94. He was super- 
visor of iliison County when the county seat 
was located at Lincoln, Mich. Mr. Pelton's 
one child, Juliette, is the wife of William 
Reid, of Pelton & Reid, Cheboygan. 

Mr. Pelton is a director and stockliolder in 
the First National bank of his city; president 
of the Cheboygan Towing C^ompany, also 
treasurer of the Great ?forthern Protective 
Association of (/heboygan, and an extensive 
owner of pine lands in AVisconsin and Minne- 
sota. He is also a large stockholder in the 
Ashland & Cripple Creek Gold Mining Co., 
and one of its directors. 



142 



MEK OF PEOGKESS. 




GRANT MARION MORSE. 

MOESE, GKAKT MARION. Grant 
Marion jMorse was born in Portland town- 
ship, Ionia eonnty, INTovember 18, 1854. His 
father, Darins J. Morse, was one of the earlier 
settlers in Ionia eonnty, locating in Portland 
township in 185e'^>, where he owned and oper- 
ated a farm. The grandfather, Thomas J. 
Morse, came from Ontario connty, T^ew York 
state, and Leonard Morse, the great-grand- 
father, Avas a Vermont er. 

Grant Marion Morse commenced his edu- 
cation in the district school adjacent to his 
father's farm, where he managed to sandwich 
in sufficient time between his farm work to 
obtain a fair amount of knowledge. He 
earned his first moitey at the rate of 25 cents 
a day, riding a colt wdiile cultivating corn. 
When he reached his seventeenth year he was 
stifficiently advanced in education to enter the 
Michigan Agricultural College, where he 
studied from 1872 until 1874. When 18 
years of age he obtained a third-grade teach- 
er's certificate, and securing a position in the 
school in his own district, he started to teach 
the young idea. This experiment was made 
more difficult bv the efforts of several of his 



scholars who had been his schoolmates prior 
to his becoming a teacher. They made life 
miserable for their pedagogue, and endeav- 
ored to make his new vocation fail, but he 
eoon Avon them over and finished what was 
unanimously conceded one of the most suc- 
cessful terms ever taught in the district. The 
money earned by teaching, and in farm w^ork, 
^^'as used to pay young Mode's way through 
college. He left school and in May, 1875, 
joined' his father in the purchase of a general 
store and elevator at Collins, Ionia connty. 
He was given a lialf interest in this enter- 
prise and in 1878 he had secured enough 
money to enable him to complete the payment 
for the business, and that same year he re- 
turned to farming. 

In 1880 he again embarked in the mer- 
cantile business, and together with a partner 
pui'chased a grocery and crockery store at 
Portland, Michigan. This business venture 
proved most successful and after two years he 
bought out his partner and continued alone. 
In 1888 he sold out, and entered the insur- 
ance business. Later he added the real estate 
and loan business, which he still continues. 
Mr. Morse is a Republican. In 1876-77 he 
was made superintendent of schools. In 1896 
he w^as the Republican nominee for judge of 
the Probate Court, but was defeated Avlth his 
ticket in tiie silver tide that swept the county 
that }^ear. He is a member of the Republican 
State Central Committee, and was a delegate 
to the Republican National Convention in 
1896. During 1888-90 he was treasurer of 
Portland Yillage, member of the Council in 
1890-92, and justice of the peace 1890-1900, 
and has always been as active in the promotion 
of the many industrial enterprises which have 
made Portland an enviable reputation, as in 
the counsels of his party. He was appointed 
state game and fish warden by Governor Pin 
gree, March 16, 1899. Mr. Morse married 
Sarah E. Perry, daughter of Joseph Perry, at 
Lcdi, Michigan, eluly 9, 1879. His son, Leon 
G. Morse., ^^g^d 17, is at school. Mr. Morse 
is a Knight Templar, Mason, K. of P., and 
member of A. O. U. W. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



143 



GRAHAM, HON. EGBERT D. Robert 
D. Graham was born November 11, 1855, 
at TInion, Gntario. When he was only a year 
old his parents moved to Minnesota, wheix^ 
they settled npon the extreme frontier and en- 
gaged in farmJng. iJnring the nprising of 
the Sionx Indian^, when the news of It 
reached the Graham honsehold, they left theii* 
little home to the inercy of the Indians, tho 
family taking refnge in the settlement. Homers 
were looted and bnrned as the Sionx swept 
throngh the conntry on their destroying raid, 
bnt, strange to say, althongh they looted the 
Graham lionse, they left it standing, the onlv 
one for miles aronnd. 

In 1801) the family bonght a small farm 
near Grand Rapids, Michigan. Here the boy 
received his first schooling dnring the winter 
months, as in Minnesota there were not, at 
that time, any school honses. The father em- 
barked in the market gardening bnsiness, and 
yonng Graham took the trnck to market. This 
necessitated getting np at three in the morn- 
ing, and driving to town ^^ith the vegetables. 
Dnring the winter he was sent to the pnblic 
school at Grand Rapids, and in 1872 and 
1873, in his vacation periods, lie clerked in 
an ice cream and confectionery store at Big 
Rapids. The next two years lie took np the 
plnmbing trade, bnt as his father had bonght 
more land and increased his ontpnt lie re- 
tnrned when 20 years old to the farm and 
assisted him. In winter he read law with 
E. A. Maher, of Grand Rapids, and on April 
17, 1879, came before the Supreme Conrt 
and passed his examination. 

His father, having become financially crip- 
pled throngh some bad investments. Mr. 
Graham retnrned to the farm and his old work 
at market gardening. Together with his 
father, he pnrchased an adjoining farm, going 
into debt at 10 per cent, interest for $4,500, 
which, by hnstling, they paid in three years' 
time, when more lands were pnrchased and the 
Grahams became large growers of frnit, 

Mr. Graham became a bendict abont this 
time and then resnmed his place on the mar- 
ket wagon. 

Shortly afterwards he was elected a direc- 




HON. ROBERT D. GRAHAM. 

tor of the Fifth National Bank of Grand 
Rapids, and made a Knight Templar, so he 
was hnckster in tlie morning, bank director 
at noon, farmer in the afternoon and society 
man at night to «ome Masonic party. 

He is \ice-i)resident and a member of the 
Executive Board of the State Ilorticnltnre 
Society, a member of the executive board of 
the State Agricnltnral Society, and a mem- 
ber of several frnit growers' associations. Be- 
sides being a director in the National Bank 
he is also a director of the AVest Side Building 
and Loan Association of Grand Rapids, a 
director of the Citizens' I'elephone Company 
of Grand Rapids, and identified with several 
of fhn important local indnstries. In 1899 
he was elected president of the Eifth ^^ational 
Bank. 

He was elected supervisor of Kent County 
in 1885, being the first Republican elected 
in that township in over 32 years. In 1895- 
'96 he was representative from the Third 
District of Kent County, re-elected in 1897- 
'98, and elected State Senator from the Seven- 
teenth District in 1898-99. 

He married Anna, daughter of Wendall 
Gross, at Rockford, Michigan, in 1880, and 
they have one child, Josephine, aged 13. 



144 



MEX OF PROGEESS. 




ARTHUR PERKINS LOOMPS. 



LOOMIS, AETHIJE PEEKI^S. Artlnir 
Perkins Loomis was born in Berlin townsliip, 
Michigan, September 12, 1859. He attended 
the district schools of the township nntil he 
was 15 years old, then he became a scholar 
at the Ionia pid)lic schools, living at home 
on his fatlier's farm and walking back and 
forth several miles to school. lie is still, and 
has always been, identified with the farming 
interest of this state, owning a farm near Ionia 
at the present day. 

In politics lie is a Eepnblican, adopting 
that party when he became of age, and re- 
maining faithfnl to its interests ever since. 
Eor many years he was a mendier of the 
county committee. He has served as direc- 
tor, treasurer and secretary of the Ionia Fair 
Association, and as president of the Ionia 
County Farmer's Institute Society. During 
the years of 1893-94-95-96, Mr. Loomis w^as 
private secretary to Gov. John I\ Rich, in 
which capacity he gained an extended ac- 
quaintance throughout the state, making 
many friends. After the retirement of elohn 
T. Eich, Mr. Loomis returned to his farm, 
and on May 1, 1897, he was tendered the posi- 
tion of deputy state land commissioner under 



William A. French, which he accepted and 
holds at the present time. 

A peculiar coincidence in the appointment 
of Mr. Loomis to be private secretary to the 
governor of jMichigan was brought out in the 
fact that the same day of his appointment, a 
younger brotlier, T. M. Loomis, who had 
located in tin- Northwest, was appointed Pri- 
vate Secretary to Governor Charles II. Shel- 
don, of South Dakota. 

Socially, as well as in political circles, even 
among the parties of the opposing political 
creed, Arthur P. Loomis is well liked and 
possesses a large following and many friends. 
IFe has that happy faculty of making friends 
and keeping them, which marks the success- 
ful man. He is a member of the Grange 
of ^lichigan. Modern Woodmen and Knights 
of tlie Maccabees. 

Mr. Loomis married Miss Carrie M. Ses- 
sions, the daughter of ex- Lieutenant-Governor 
A 1 ouzo Sessions. The marriage took place at 
Ionia, Michigan, N'ov. 16, 1894. They have 
one child, a daughter, Mary Frances Loomis, 
aged four years. Mr. Loomis has a comforta- 
ble and handsome residence in Berlin town- 
ship, Ionia county, Michigan. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



145 



CAMPBELL, HON^. ANDEEW. An- 
drew Campbell, as his name implies, is a 
Scotchman by birth, although now an Ameri- 
can citizen, and is largely identified with the 
progress of Michigan. He owns and operates 
a large farm near Ypsilanti, Micliigan, and as 
a farmer he is following in the steps of his 
father and his father's people before him. He 
was born in Lanrenston, ])arish of Dalrymple, 
Ayrshire, Scotland, May 21), 18:52, and is 
68 years of age at the present writing. His 
father, Eobert Campbell, when Andrew was 
about 11 years of age, was forced by the higli 
rents existing in the old country, to try his 
fortunes in the new, and March 1, 1843, he 
located in Augusta township, AVashtenaw 
county, Michigan. 

The Avork incidental to opening up the 
farm kept Andrew away from school, 
except about four months, when he 
managed to attend the district school and 
get a glimpse of education. He helped 
his father and his brother in clearing up the 
farms, and attended the Normal School at 
Ypsilanti, graduating in the fall of 1859. Tlie 
two winters intervening he taught a district 
gchool at Livonia, Wayne county. Judge Dur- 
fee, of Detroit, was one of his scliolars. In 
1861 he purchased a farm in Pittsfield town- 
ship, near the University of Michigan, and for 
a number of winters attended courses on his- 
tory, political economy, international law, his- 
tory of philosophy and ethics. I'o do this he 
went into debt $8,200, and started operations 
with only a few tools and a little stock. It re- 
quired nearly 20 years to pay for his farm, and 
in that time he paid out nearly $8,000 as in- 
terest. 

Mr. Campbell has always been a staunch 
Republican, and has held many minor 
township offices. In 1876 he was put up 
by his party as a candidate for the Senate, 
but was defeated. Ten years later he was 
re-nominated for the same office, but was 
beaten in the race by elames Gorman. In 
1896 the Republicans again placed Andrew 
Campbell's name before the voters of that 




HON. ANDREW CAMPBELL. 

district, and he was elected to the Sen- 
ate of 1897-98 against his own cousin, J. 
E. McDougal, who was the opposing candi- 
date. Mr. Campbell was a delegate to the 
National Farmer's Congress at Chicago, 
Parkersl)urg, West Virginia, l^ashville, At- 
lanta and Boston. H(^ is one of the first advo- 
cates for tlie good roads system, and a delegate 
from this state to all national conventions. He 
is also one of the original founders of the 
Grange in this state, and has been a member 
since 1873. 

Mr. Campbell married Miss Catherine 
Fisher, daughter of Daniel Fisher, and named 
after General Lawton's mother, at Superior, 
Michigan, October 26, 1859. He has five chil- 
dren. Robert Campbell, his eldest son, is a 
lawyer, practicing at Jackson, Michigan, 
iimior member of the firm of Parkinson & 
Campbell; Anna married Rev. A. J. Covell, 
of Lynn, Massachusetts; Daniel F. is an attor- 
ney at Fort Worth, Kansas; Catherine, a 
teacher in the public schools at South Bend, 
Indiana, and James A., a student at the IT. 
of M. 



146 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




HON. FRANK SHEPHERD. 

SHEPHEED, HOI^. FRANK. Frank 

Shepherd is another in the long list of men 
who haA^e paid their own way through school 
and fonght through difficulties to a place in 
the front ranks of the leading professional 
m^n of this State. He was born in Dover 
township, j.enawee county, Michigan, Janu- 
ary 28, 1853. His father, James H. Shep- 
herd, was a farmer living near Adrian, and his 
grandfather Avas the Rev. Paul Shepherd, a 
pioneer of this state and afterwards of Kansas. 
His mother was a member of the McMath 
family of Xcav York and Michigan. The 
young man attended the district schools of 
Dover toAvnship and later the school of a 
neighboring Anllage, working as a farm hand 
during the summer months to pay for his win- 
ter's tuition and board. There were four boys 
in the Shepherd family, and one day Frank 
informed his family that there were enough 
to work the 60-acre farm without him, and 
that he did not intend to spend his days there, 
so he secured a teacher's certificate and turned 
teacher. He taught school all during the fol- 
lowing fall and winter, and spent his vacation 
on the farm. He then became a student at 
the State Normal in Ypsilanti, taught again 



during vacation and carrying out the same 
plan, attended Adrian and Oberlin Colleges. 
His parents were not in a position to assist him, 
so he taught school to pay his way through col- 
lege. After five years of this life he found em- 
ployment as a clerk at Adrian, and .then en- 
tered the law office of the firm of Stay & ITn- 
derAvood, of that city, as a student, and re- 
mained Avith them until he Avas admitted to the 
bar in 1878. The following year he removed 
to Cheboygan, Michigan, Avhere he spent his 
first year and his saAdngs in an effort to build 
up a law practice. For some years prior to 
Jan. 1, 1900, he Avas the senior member of 
the firm of Shepherd & Rielly, of Cheboygan, 
and is noAV circuit judge of the tAventy-ninth 
judicial circuit. 

In politics, Mr. Shepherd is a Republican. 
He Avas prosecuting attorney of Cheboygan 
county 1880-1884, appointed judge of Probate 
Court in 1886 and elected to same office in 
1888, and was a member of the Board of Con- 
trol of Upper Peninsula Prison in 1890-91, 
and elected tO' the Legislature as representative 
from the Cheboygan district in 1897-98 by a 
vote of 4,021 to 3,409 for James F. Maloney, 
Democratic-People's Union Silver candidate. 
During this term of office he acted as chairman 
on the committee on roads and bridges and 
served on the judiciary committee. Mr. Shep- 
herd was re-elected to the house in 1898 and 
Avas chairman of the judiciary committee. In 
the spring of 1899, Avhile still in attendance at 
the session of the Legislature, he Avas nomi- 
nated by the Republican convention and 
elected circuit judge of the thirty-third judi- 
cial circuit by over 650 majority. He took 
his seat January 1, 1900. 

In February, 1879, Judge Shepherd mar- 
ried Miss Susan, daughter of James A. McMil- 
lan, at Deerfield, Michigan. They have three 
children: James F., Mary Ethel, and George 
Ralph, and have lost one — Katharine: — by 
death. 

Judge Shepherd is a Chapter Mason, be- 
longs to the Knights of Pythias, Independent 
Order of Odd FelloAvs, Modem "Woodmen 
and Knights of the Maccabees. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



147 



OKEN, HON. HORACE MANE^. At- 
torney-General Horace Mann Oren, of the 
state of Michigan, was born on a farm in 
Clinton county, near Oakland, Ohio, Febru- 
ary 3, 1859. His father, Charles Oren, was 
a school teacher at the opening of the civil 
war. In 1863 he enlisted a company of col- 
ored troops in southern Ohio, and he was 
mustered in as their captain in the Fifth IT. 
S. Colored Troops. Capt. Oren was killed 
in the siege of Petersburg in July, 1864. 

His death threw the entire support of the 
little family that was left upon his mother. 
She taught school in southern Ohio and in 
1868 moved to Indianapolis, Ind., where she 
took a position in the Indianapolis High 
School. In 1873 she was elected state libra- 
rian of Indiana, being the first woman to oc- 
cupy that position. Young Oren attended 
the public schools, and assisted his mother in 
various ways. He carried papers, was assist- 
ant in the State Library and the Indianapolis 
public library. He graduated from the In- 
dianapolis High School in 1877 and in the 
same year entered the Literary Department 
of the University of Michigan, where he 
graduated in 1881. Upon his graduation 
from the Literary he entered the Law Depart- 
ment, w^here he studied until he graduated in 
1883. 

Before he finished his law course, however, 
he had been offered a position on the ^^Soo 
News,'^ at Sault Ste. Marie, which he ac- 
cepted, returning to the Universitv to gradu- 
ate and going back again to the newspaper 
business. 

For a term of years he divided his attention 
between his journalistic work and his profes- 
sion as an attorney, giving up the former in 
1885 to attend to his growing law practice. 

In November, 1898, he was elected to his 
present office, attorney-general of Michigan, 
and he assumed his place January 1, 1899. 

Mr. Oren has always been prominently 
identified with the Republican party, and has 
held several other offices prior to taking the 
place he now holds. He has been village 




HON. HORACE MANN OREN. 

clerk, justice of the peace, circuit court com- 
missioner, city and prosecuting attorney. 

Mr. Oren was married in Grindstone City, 
Huron county, Michigan, January 1, 1890, 
to Miss Margaret el. Wallace. They have 
two children, Robert Oren, aged nine, and 
Chase Osborn, aged three years. 

Mr. Oren's ancestry has an interesting his- 
tory. His great-great-grandfather, Joseph 
Oren, was a Quaker and lived in York county, 
Pennsylvania. During the Revolutionary 
war it is reported that his house was burned 
by the Tories and his family of ten children 
were turned out in the snow and had to live 
through the winter in the barn. His great- 
grandfather, John Oren, emigrated to eastern 
Tennessee in the latter part of the last cen- 
tury and his grandfather, Elihu Oren, was 
born there in 1809. In 1810 the family 
moved to Clinton county, Ohio. 

On his mother's side, his grandfather was 
Abraham Allen, a Scotch-Irish Quaker. He 
was a noted Abolitionist in his day and one of 
the most persistent men of his time in operat- 
ing the "Underground Railroad'' system 
through that part of Ohio. 



148 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




MICHAEIL JARDAN MAGEE. 

MAGEE, MTCHAEL JAEDAN. Tlie 

*^Soo Democrat" is the only Democratic paper 
piihlished in Chippewa conntv and is one of 
the leading weeklies of tlie Tipper Peninsula. 
The proprietor and manager, Michael Jardan 
Magee, has been active in furthering the in- 
terests of the Democratic party in his section 
of the State ever since he came to Michigan. 

M. J. Magee was born in Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, in October, 1862. His father, 
James F. Magee, was a well-known manufac- 
turing chemist in that city, and his grand- 
father, Michael Magee, was a manufacturer 
and wholesale dealer in saddlery and leather 
goods, doing business in Philadelphia and 
'New Orleans. The family are of Scotch- 
Irish ancestry and are of the Protestant faith. 

Mr. Magee attended the ^'Friends'' school 
in his native city until he was 16 years of 
age, and then entered the Polytechnic 
College of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, 
graduating in 1881 as a mining and civil en- 
gineer. The summer following his gradua- 



tion he went west in order to find a field in 
which to practice his profession, and located 
in a mining town named Hancock, in Col- 
orado. Here for the next three years he fol- 
lowed the business of a prospector's assayist, 
surveyor and mining engineering. He devoted 
most of his time to surveying and developing 
the many mining properties that came into 
prominence during the silver excitement, buy- 
ing and selling mining properties and locating 
several important mines. He maintained 
his assay office at Hancock and prospered 
during the boom. Eeturning to Philadel- 
phia in 1884 he entered the manufacturing 
business under the firm name of the Cam- 
den Thread Company, of which he was the 
proprietor and manager. The company 
manufactured finished threads and spool cot- 
ton and was eminently prosperous; in 1888 a 
desirable offer was made for the plant and Mr. 
Magee sold out. A visit to Sault Ste. Marie 
in this year resulted in Mr. Magee engaging 
in the real estate and insurance busiliess in 
that city, purchasing several Targe blocks of 
property both in that city and the Canadian 
Soo. 

In 1891 he first became interested in the 
'^Soo Democrat'' and purchasing the interest 
of D. W. I^rownell he undertook what has 
proved the successful management of the 
paper in partnership with John E. Burchard, 
whom he afterwards bought out and thus be^ 
came the sole proprietor. The Democrat is 
the official organ of the I^emocratic party in 
that county and has a circulation of over 
2,500. Mr. Magee has been a delegate to the 
state conventions on many occasions, and in 
1896 was a delegate to the National conven- 
tion at Chicago, opposing the adoption of the 
free silver platform. 

In 1891 he married Miss Mary Emma 
JVIiskey, at Media, Pennsylvania, and they 
have two children, both girls, Elizabath and 
Cynthia, aged respectively seven and five 
years. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



149 



BIRD, ARTHLHi C. In promoting the 
farming industry in this state, Arthur C. 
i3ird has been actively engaged for many 
years. He has made a life study of his work, 
and through his agency much eastern capital 
has been invested in Michigan farming lands, 
and the wealth of the state has been increased 
in consequence. 

His people before him were engaged in 
agricultural pursuits, his grandfather, Gard- 
ner C. Bird, coming to this state from Nor- 
wich, Connecticut, many years ago, and being 
one of the first settlers in Oakland county. 

A. C. Bird was born in Highland, Michi- 
gan, May 22, 1864:. Two miles from his 
home was the little district school, where his 
education was commenced, and thither, when 
old enough to attend school up to the time he 
was 15 years of age, he walked every day. 
Working at odd jobs now and then, lie saved 
enough money to enter the Agricultural Col- 
lege of this state in his fifteenth year. He 
took a four years' course, graduating at the 
age of 19. -During his vacations he worked 
in his grandfather's bank at Feiiton, Michi- 
gan, thus securing a practical business educa- 
tion. It was his intention to enter the bank- 
ing business upon leaving college, but his 
grandfather died shortly before the close of 
the term and the bank was closed by the estate. 
He then engaged in farming on his own ac- 
count, buying 110 acres, which he afterwards 
increased to 280 acres. His knowledge of the 
work, together Avith his practical business train- 
ing brought liiiii much success as a farmer. 

In 1893 his Alma Mater granted him the 
special degree of Master of Agriculture on ac- 
count of his marked success in his chosen voca- 
tion. This was the first degree of its kind 
granted by the college to an alumnus. 

For the past ten years he has been the 
Michigan agent for several eastern capital- 
ists, advising them and placing their money 
in farming properties throughout southern 
Michigan. 

Mr. Bird is one of the founders of the 
Farmers' Club of Michigan, an association 
that hag been beneficial to the industry in 




ARTHUR CRANSON BIRD, 



bringing its members in close contact with 
each other for the exchange of ideas 
that tend to advance the science of farm- 
ing. He conceived tlie plan, and was instru- 
mental in organizing the State Association of 
Farmers' Clubs. There are about three hun- 
dred and fifty such clubs in Michigan at the 
present time, and the membership amounts to 
30,000. While a student at tlie Agricultural 
(^ollege, Mr. Bird was the editor of the col- 
lege paper, and for several years he has edited 
the Farmer's C^lub department of the Michi- 
gan Farmer. 

Mr. Bird is one of the directors and is also 
the largest stockholder in the West Michigan 
l^urseries, a very large and flourishing enter- 
prise located at Benton Harbor, Michigan. 
He is also secretary of the Michigan Agricul- 
tural College. From 1897 to 1899 he was a 
member of tlie State Board of Agriculture. 
Mr. Bird is an honored frater in the Masonic 
fraternity. He was married at Highland, 
Michigan to Miss Josephine S. St. John, 
daughter of William St. John, of that place, 
on August 16th, 1889. They have two chil- 
dren. 



150 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




HON. JOHN HOLBROOK. 

HOLBROOK, IlOlSr. JOHN. Hon John 
Holbrook, chief deputy, Bureau of liabor and 
Industrial Statistics, at Lansing, Michigan, 
first came into political prominence during 
the gubernatorial campaign of 1890, when in 
that year at the State Convention, held in 
Detroit, he nominated Hon. James M. Turner 
for the Republican nominee for governor. 
Mr. Holbrook was born in New York state, 
at North Chili, October 1, 1848. His father 
moved to Michigan the same year, locating on 
a farm near Delhi township, Ingham county. 
Here the boy attended the district schools at 
Delhi, until he was 17 years old, when he 
was sent to a school managed by M. V. Rork, 
at Lansing. Working on the farm during 
vacations, and earning a few dollars in that 
way, he managed to keep up his school days 
until when 18 years of age he himself became 
a teacher of the young idea, teaching in the 
various schools throughout the district until 
he was 25. His uncle, D. C. Holbrook, an 
attorney in Detroit, offered him a position in 
his oiSce at one time, but as young Holbrook 
was earning $16 a month as a farm-hand he 
thought it better to refuse. October 23, 



1873, he married Mrs. Lydia M. Skinner, 
daughter of William Reeves, at Lansing, 
Michigan, and purchased a farm in Lansing 
township, where he intended to settle down 
in the quietude of a farmer's life. He oper- 
ated the farm with moderate success until 
1889, when the active political life in which 
he had become involved necessitated his re- 
moval to Lansing. 

While living in Delhi township he was 
elected township treasurer, being the first Re- 
publican elected to that office in the township 
for 20 years. In 1875 he w^as elected town- 
ship clerk, and the same year made super- 
visor, in which position he acted until 1879. 
Mr. Holbrook was the Republican candidate 
for register of deeds of Ingham county in 
1882, when the county had 1,200 Democratic 
majority, and was defeated. In 1886 he was 
elected state senator from what was then the 
Fourteenth Senatorial District, and he served 
during the session of 1887-88. Re-elected to 
this office, he served the two sessions follow- 
ing, in 1889-90. 

Grovernor Luce in 1890 appointed Mr. Hol- 
brook chief deputy oil inspector for the years 
of 1890-91, and in March, 1897, he was ap- 
pointed deputy labor commissioner under 
Joseph L. Cox, and re-appointed in 1899. 
Mr. Holbrook is, at the present writing, a 
member of the Republican State Central 
Committee. 

During the years of 1883-84-85 Mr. Hol- 
brook was lecturer of the State Grange, and 
in 1886-87 was the overseer of the Grange. 
His tireless activity in the cause of his party, 
and his capacity for organization, has been 
the means of pushing him well toward the 
front ranks of the Republican party and 
making him one of the leading Republicans 
in this state. He is one of the organizers of 
the Zach Chandler Club of Ingham county, 
and a member of that well known body, the 
Michigan Club, of Detroit, Michigan. 

Mr. Holbrook is a Mason and has taken the 
Scottish Rite degrees up to and including the 
3 2d, and is also a member of the Knights of 
the Maccabees and of the Eastern Star. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



151 



PIERCE, HON. CHARLES SUMNER. 
Hon. Charles Sumner Pierce is a direct de- 
scendant of Captain William Pierce, who 
lived in the early part of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, 1590. He was a sea captain, com- 
manding the *^Betsey and Ellen,'' which 
brought over from England Roger Williams 
and his wife Mary, Nov. 29, 1831, andlater 
Governor Winthrop and his wife. He also 
brought the first cattle to America from Eng- 
land. Captain Michael Pierce, of Scituate, 
Massachusetts, the son of Captain William 
Pierce, took a prominent part in the history 
of the early New England colonies. He was 
bom in 1615, and was killed Sunday, March 
20, 1676. His death occurred during one of 
the many Indian wars, when, together with 
50 settlers, the valiant captain was sur- 
rounded by the Indians. History states that 
they placed themselves back to back and 
fought until every man was killed. 

Charles Sumner Pierce was born on a farm 
at Redford, Wayne county, Michigan, June 
12, 1858. He worked at farming and at- 
tended the district schools until he was 20 
years of age. He earned his first money at 
14, picking up potatoes at two cents a bushel, 
and when his earnings reached $30 he in- 
vested that amount in a pair of steers, which 
he sold the following spring for twice as 
much as he paid for them. He added $10 
more to this and bought a colt, selling that a 
year later for $140. At 20 years of age he 
was thus able to attend the State Normal 
School, paying his own expenses, and taking 
a course in German and Latin. He was class 
orator when he graduated, in 1882. Shortly 
after leaving school he was tendered the posi- 
tion of principal in the Au Sable public school, 
which he accepted and held for two years. 
While in this position he purchased and pub- 
lished the newspaper ^^Saturday Night,'' of 
which he is still proprietor. In 1885 he en- 
tered the Law Department of the University 
of Michigan, graduating with the class of 
1887. 

After graduating he returned to Oscoda 
and opened a law olRce. In 1891 he was 




HON. CHARLES SUMNER PIERCE. 

made county connnissioner of schools, re- 
maining BO until 1893. In 1893 he was 
nominated for state senator on the Republi- 
can ticket. Tlie district in 1891 had gone 
overwhelmingly Democratic, but Mr„ Pierce 
was elected by 640 majority. During the 
session of 1895 he was senate clerk of the 
committee on apportionment. He was chosen 
secretary of the State Senate in 1897. He 
was made postmaster of Oscoda in 1898, but 
resigned about a year later, having been re- 
elected secretary of the Senate of 1899. He 
has been for several years, and still is, a mem- 
ber and secretary of the board of education of 
Oscoda, and was attorney of Oscoda village for 
several years, and has held other local offices. 

Mr. Pierce married in 1889, at Detroit, 
Michigan, Frances Barnard, daughter of Mrs. 
Mortimer L. Smith. He has three children. 

He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, 
of the National Union, and the Loyal Guard. 
A Republican in politics, Mr. Pierce has won 
the respect and confidence of the members of 
his party and his constituents. His home is 
in Oscoda, Michigan, where, when not attend- 
ing to his duties in the Senate, he spends most 
of his time. 



152 



MEN OF PROGEESS. 




GEORGE WASHINGTON STONE. 

STONE, GEOROE WASHINGTON. 

Pathos and romance liave taken a large part 
in the career of (Jeorge W. Stone, now the 
receiver of the (^entral Michigan Savings 
Bank at Lansing, Michigan, and a cajiitalist 
of that city. His father was Captain Will- 
iam Timmons, of Newbern, N. (1, engaged 
in the West India trade. His mother was of 
Irish devscent and Catholic parentage. George 
was born in Newbern, N. C, Angust 27, 
1849. His mother and father differed over 
their religious beliefs, and eventually separ- 
ated, the mother taking the children and 
going to New York. Here she met with re- 
verses, and the boy was found on the streets 
by the Children's Aid Society, and together 
with his brother Joe was sent west with 31 
other waifs. Tlie two brothers were adopted 
by Simon A. Stone, a farmer in Albion, Mich- 
igan, but when George reached liis thirteenth 
year he ran away to enlist as a drummer boy 
in Company D, First Michigan Sharpshoot- 
ers. The little lad became a great favorite in 
the company, and the oihcers taking an in- 
terest in the youthful soldier, bought books 
and aided him in learning to read and write. 



A romantic incident connected with his life 
in the army was the receiving of a needle- 
case, sent by the patriotic women of Penn- 
sylvania, in whicli he found a note from a 
girl who later turned out to be his lost sister. 
Returning to Albion at the close of his ser- 
vice, he went to school there, and later at- 
tended Albion College for two years. After 
this he engaged in business in partnership 
Avith C. D. Comstock, and built up a success- 
ful trade in dry goods and groceries. In 
1870 he decided to remove to Petersburg, Vir- 
ginia. Here he manufactured lumber, staves 
and heading, but met with business reverses 
and lost everything. He then started for the 
13akotas, but only managed to get as far as 
Buffalo, New York, when he found himself 
without a dollar. 

Here he started in business with no other 
capital than his nerve. He bought with this 
a canal boat, horses and paint, painted the 
boat himself, and soon secured a contract for 
carrying hnnber. In 60 days he had paid 
for his outfit. That fall he lost all his horses, 
and so he sold out and moved to Lapeer, 
Michigan, where he engaged in the grocery 
business and ran a store until 1883. A stroke 
of paralysis came along about this time, and 
he sold out again, and took a clerkship in 
the auditor-generaFs office at Lansing, Mich- 
igan. In 1885 he went to Dakota and 
founded the town of Lloskins, now the county 
seat of M ackintosh county. Here he engaged 
in business, prospered and returned with some 
capital to Llarrison, Michigan, where he be- 
gan the manufacture of lumber in partner- 
ship with Wilson & Son, under the name of 
Wilson, Stone & Wilson. He sold out in 1894. 
Mr. Stone was city clerk of Lapeer in 1880, 
clerk of the United States District Court, Da- 
kota Territory, 1884-5; county clerk of Clare 
county, Michigan, 1888-90, and auditor-gen- 
eral, state of Michigan, 1890-92. He mar- 
ried Miss Kittie A., daughter of Osman Rice, 
of Albion, in that city, in 1869. Their son, 
Fred G. Stone, is chief clerk in the United 
States pension office at Detroit. 



HISTOEIGAL SKETCHES. 



153 



CONNmE, HON. MAIN J. Starting in 
life as a poor boy, working on his father's 
fann, and attending school only when the sea- 
sons between planting, growing and harvest- 
ing would permit his absence from agricul- 
tural labors, Main J. Connine worked himself 
up from his lowly position until now he is 
circuit judge of the Twenty-third Judicial 
Circuit. 

He was born at Pokagon, Michigan, July 7, 
185e'3. His father was a farmer in hund)le 
circumstances, and until he was 19 years of 
age the boy assisted in the work of the farm, 
going to school in the winter. His nineteenth 
year, however, was the year of his emancipa- 
tion from farm life. He obtained a thii-d- 
grade teacher's certificate and earned his first 
money, $35 per montli, teaching school in 
Orand Traverse county. With his savings 
he w^as enabled tlie following summer to at- 
tend the Dowagiac High School, where lu^ 
remained until the next winter, and tlien re- 
sumed school teaching for two seasons. In 
1874 he became a student at the Valparaiso 
l^ormal School at Valparaiso, Indiana, and 
during his vacation he turned book agent or 
worked on the farm, in order to obtain the 
money necessary to live and complete his 
course of studies. His lack of means and 
shabby clothes frequently made him feel like 
giving up the struggle, but througli })rivation 
and self-denial he kept on. His father and 
grandfather signed a note for him that assisted 
the boy to complete his last term, taking the 
degree of E. S. He was a, clever penman, 
and his fancy pen work brought him in a little 
money, so that when he left scliool he was 
only $24 in debt. That fall he was made 
principal of the schools in Mt. Vernon, Indi- 
ana, at a salary of $800 a year, which gave 
him enough to enter the I^aw Department of 
the LTniversity of Michigan the following 
year. He remained at the llniversity for one 
year and the next was offered the principal- 
ship of the public schools at Douglass, Michi- 
gan, whicii he accepted, and held two years. 
He held a similar position the year after at 
Champion, in the Upper Peninsula. 




HON. MAIN J. CONNINE. 

During tliis ])eriod and for five yeai's, 
nights, Satui'days and vacations, he was dili- 
gently studying law. When vacation periods 
g'Ave him the opportunity, he (Altered the law 
office of the now^ Judge Padgham, of Allegan, 
where he studied until he was admitted to the 
bar at I'l'avei'se City by (Circuit Judge Kams- 
dall. 

His first individual office was opened up at 
Cray ling, Michigan. He was extremely for- 
tunate in securing several good clients and 
winning some hard-fought cases in the first 
year of his practice, and his success was almost 
immediate. He confined himself largely to 
civil })ractice, remaining in Crayling until 
1888 and then removing to Oscoda. 

He was connnissioner of the (Circuit Court 
of (Jrawford county, 1884-85; prosecuting at- 
torney for (h-awford county, 1885-87; prose- 
cuting attcd^ney, Iosco county, 1890, 1892- 
93-94, and elected circuit judge of the 
I'wenty-third District on the Republican 
ticket, with no opposing candidates. 

Judge Connine married Miss Ella Bur- 
roughs at Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1877. 
'l^hey have two children. Judge Connine is 
a Mason and Kniglit Templar and a member 
of the K. O. T. M. 



154 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 




ARTHUR MARTIN GEROW, M. D. 

CiEEOW, M. 1)., ARTHUR MARTIN. 
Dr. Artliur Martin Gerow^ of Cheboygan^ 
Michigan, owner of several large business 
blocks in that city, where he also practices 
iiis profession of physician and surgeon, was 
born in Belleville, Ontario, March 7, 1845. 
He attended the village school during the 
winter terms and worked in a sawmill during 
the summer until lie was 17 years of age, 
when he obtained a Second certificate, and 
after teaching one year went to the Toronto 
N^ormal School, graduating therefrom in De- 
cember, 1863. He earned $250 the first 
\ear in this profession, and $300 the second, 
reading medicine during vacations in the of- 
fices of Drs. Parker and Bradley, of Sterling. 
Then, having earned money enough to pay his 
tuition, he entered the Royal College of Phy- 
sicians and Surgeons at Kingston, Out., where 
he remained one year. He then entered the 
Buffalo Medical College in Buffalo, 'New 
York, from which he graduated February, 
1868. He bung out his sign in Galena, Illi- 
nois, for three months and then sought more 
promising fields. That fall he went to Che^ 
boygan with $40 in his pocket, his medicine 



case arid diploma as a basis to commence a new 
])ractice. There he found a population of 
about 200 healthy people who did not seem to 
require the services of a young graduate and 
his finances soon became exhausted, forcing 
him to seek employment or leave town. He 
was offered a position in a store, where he 
made up his mind to stay until he could earn 
enough money to take him to Kansas City. He 
earned about $60 a month in the store and 
soon began to add to his income with a little 
practice. In 1869 he had accumulated 
enough money to open a small drug store and 
from that time on he commenced to make 
money and builcJ up a good practice, so that 
in 1883 he was able to sell out the store and 
devote his entire time to the practice of his 
profession. 

Dr. Gerow purchased considerable property 
in the village during his successful years, put- 
ting a great deal of his spare capital into busi- 
ness lots, and in 1873 he became very much 
embarrassed financially and at one time con- 
templated selling out. He managed to hold 
on, however, until the dull times passed over, 
and the property has increased in value until 
today it is some of the most valuable in Che- 
boygan. He has built several business blocks, 
including the Gerow block, and owns nearly 
a Avhole block of stores and business houses, 
from which he receives a good income. Of 
late years he has taken up the fruit culture 
and now owns the largest orchard in the state, 
having 200 acres of apple trees, and still 
planting. 

Dr. Gerow has always been identified with 
the Republican party and is one of the push- 
ing business men of Cheboygan. He is one 
of the directors of the Business Men's Asso- 
ciation of that city and president of the Great 
J^iorthern Accident Insurance Co. He was 
elected president of the village of Cheboygan 
in 1885, and was president and member of 
the school board for 24 years. He married in 
1874, at Cheboygan, Mary, daughter of John 
McDonald. Dr. Gerow is a Chapter Mason. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



155 



GARDENEE, COLONEL CORNELIUS. 

May 2, 1898^ at the breaking out of the Span- 
ish-American war^ Governor Pingree recom- 
mended to the then Secretary of War, Enssell 
A. Alger, of Michigan, Captain Cornelins 
Gardener of the Nineteenth United States In- 
fantry, stationed at Fort Wayne, for appoint- 
ment as colonel of the Thirty-first Michigan 
A^olunteers, which was the first regiment to 
leave Michigan for service in the war. 

Colonel Gardener is the son of Eev. Wy- 
nand Gardener, a clergyman who left the 
Netherlands on account of religious persecu- 
tion and brought his small congregation to 
Michigan, settling in Kalamazoo in 1852. 
Col. Gardener was born September 4, 1849, 
and when the boy was six years of age his 
father died, and he was sent to live with his 
guardian at Ottawa county, Michigan. He 
was sent to the different schools in the neigh- 
borhood, and later to the Academy at Holland 
and Hope College. At the close of his sopho- 
more year in the latter he was given a position 
in the postoffice at Grand Eapids. In 1869, 
on recommendation of Senator Thomas W. 
Ferry, he was admitted as a cadet at the Mili- 
tary Academy of West Point, from which he 
graduated in 1873. Entering the United 
States arm}, he took part in suppressing the 
various Indian uprisings in the far west, serv- 
ing on the plains of the Indian Territory, 
Kansas, New Mexico and Texas, from 1874 
until 1890. He was with Gen. Miles during 
his campaign against the Cheyenne and Ara- 
pahoe Indians, and in 1874-75 was adjutant 
of the column, under Col. Lewis, operating 
against the hostiles at Eepublican river, in 
Kansas, during which Col. Lewis met his 
death. He was adjutant and quartermaster 
in Col. Buell's column against the Utes and 




COL. CORNELIUS GARDENER. 

Navajoes in 1879, and received his commis- 
sion the same year as first lieutenant. He 
served on the Eio (Jrande river for nine years, 
engaging at times in scouting duty against 
Mexican raiders, cattle thieves and border 
ruffians. In 1891 he received his commission 
as captain of the Nineteenth United States In- 
fantry, and the same year was appointed by 
the War Department inspector of the Michi- 
gan National Guard encampments for 1891- 
92. In 1897 he was appointed to the same 
position on permanent duty. 

As colonel of the Thirty-first Michigan 
Volunteer Infantry he served ■ with his regi- 
ment at Chickamauga Park, Knoxville, Sa- 
vannah and in Cuba, until the regiment was 
mustered out. May 17, 1899, at Savannah, 
Georgia. He Avas extremely popular with his 
men. During the war he commanded for sev- 
eral months the First Brigade, Second Divis- 
ion, First Corps, and the First Brigade, First 
Division, First Corps. 



156 



MEK OF PROGRESS. 




WILLIAM MARTIN BEEIKMAN. 

BEEKMAN, WILLIAM MARTI>f. One 

of the Republican leaders in Eaton conntY; 
Aiicliigan, William Alartin Beeknian, now tlie 
|)Ostmaster at Oliarlotte, has done mnch for 
his party in that section of the state and is 
recognized as one of the progressive and influ- 
ential citizens. 

His ancestors^ as the name implies^ were of 
the old Dutch colonial stock that settled in 
l^ew Amsterdam, when what is now the 
Greater New York was only a cluster of 
quaint Dutch houses on the extreme point of 
Alanhattan Island, looking out over New 
York bay. Air. Beekman traces his ancestry 
back to one Ilarman Lutgers, who was on the 
staff of General George Washington, and 
campaigned with him during the early part of 
the revolutionary war. He is also a direct de- 
scendant of AVilliam Bedlow, first president 
of New York in 1755, and formerly owner of 
Bedlow's Island. The name of Beekman has 
spread all over New A^ork state, and in that 
section where Washington Irving has located 
most of his quaint sketches and stories, the 
Beekman family is very much in evidence. 
William Alartin Beekman was born in Chester 



township, Eaton county, Michigan, January 
2, 1843. 

When he reached the proper age he was 
sent to the district school, where he attended 
until he was 10 years old, and then was 
obliged to spend the summer and autumn 
months working on the farm, and allowed to 
attend school again in the winter. In the 
spring of 1861 he began to learn the car- 
pentering trade, and was progressing at it 
when Lincoln's call for 100,000 men swept 
over the country. Young Beekman dropped 
his plane, before he had even had a fair ac- 
quaintance with it, and enlisted August 11, 
1861, in (^nipany B, Second Michigan Cav- 
alry. The regiment rendezvoused at Camp 
Anderson, Grand Rapids, and in November 
was ordered to St. Louis, Alissouri. Later it 
was brigaded with the Second Iowa Cavalry. 

Mr. Beekman again re-enlisted in the same 
company and regiment, and later was made 
orderly sergeant. In elune, 1865, he was 
commissioned second lieutenant, but not mus- 
tered. To the conqjany in which Mr. Beek- 
man fought belongs the honor of firing the 
last shot in the civil war, east of the Missis- 
sippi river, in an engagement that occurred 
twelve days after General Lee had handed his 
sword to General (jlrant at Appomatox. 

Mr. I]eekman Avas mustered out August 17, 
1865, and immediately returned to his home 
in Eaton county. He had saved about $600 
diunng his term of service, which, together 
with some live stock he owned, was enough 
to purchase a small farm near his father's, 
and take up farming as a vocation. 

In the fall of 1886 he was elected register 
of deeds, and moved to Charlotte, where he 
now resides. 

In March, 1866, he married Christinia, 
daughter of Davis Pugh, of Eaton county. 
Airs. Beekman died a few years ago, leaving 
two children. Martin Henry died in 1889, 
age 14 years. The daughter is Airs. Mark- 
ham, of Charlotte. 

Air. Beekman is a Alason, a member of 
Charlotte Commandery, No. 37; K. P., No. 
53, and also a member of C. S. Williams 
Post, No. 40, G. A. E. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



157 



HILL, GEORGE RICHARDS. George 
Richards Hill was born at Auburn, Maine, 
November 28, 1867. His father was General 
Jonathan Hill of Stetson, Maine, who was 
colonel of the Eleventh Maine Infantry and 
breveted major-general. His mother was 
Lucy Richnj-ds, daughter of a prominent min- 
ister of the Methodist church. George Hill 
attended the village schools until he was 10 
years of age, Avhen he was sent to the River 
riew Military Academy, in New York State, 
where he was prepared for AVest Point. 
His training school experience, however, de- 
cided the young man against the West Point 
Academy, so after leaving River View he 
was put to work in a tannery of which his 
father was part owner. Young Hill was gen- 
eral utility man about the plant, and took the 
place of any absentees. When winter arrived 
he was given one of the poorest and most balky 
teams owned by the concern and put to work 
drawing bark. Cold lunches and the obstinate 
team sickened him of the job, and he made up 
his mind to start out for himself. His father 
made him a liberal offer then, but young Hill 
had decided to go south, and he left New 
York city on Thanksgiving day in 1886 on a 
trading steamer bound for St. Augustine, 
Ela., paying his own way. Three friends 
went with liim and upon arrival at their desti- 
nation found work readily on the Ponce de 
Leon hotel, then in course of construction, but 
young Hill Avas unfortunate in wearing good 
clothes, and although he told would-be em- 
ployers that he could do ^^anything,'' they 
sized up liis clothes and told him they wanted 
mechanics. The young man hustled around, 
living on one meal a day, until he struck a 
job on a railroad as brakesman on the down 
trip, and the baggagemaster on tlie return, re- 
ceiving $26 a month, and had to board him- 
self. He labored 16 hours a day loading 
oranges, pushing freight and baggage. The 
oranges were packed iii barrels and loaded on 
flat cars, and one of the duties of the brakes- 
man was to put out the fires caused by the 
sparks from the wood-burning locomotives, 
which ignited the burlap over the fruit. The 




GEORGE RICHARDS HILL. 

following iall he was tendered the position of 
clerk in tlie St. George Hotel at St. Augus- 
tine. He remained there until spring, when 
he took the ])osition of l)ookkeeper in the tan- 
nery at Forest Port, N^. Y., then owned by 
his father 'and Thos. E. Proctor, of Boston, 
xMass., the foimder and first president of the 
Hnited States Leather (^o. He closed out this 
l)usiness on account of the scarcity of bark 
(liendock) and took the management of the 
tannery at Athens, also owned l)y Proctor & 
Hill. When the tanneries were absorbed by 
the Ij. S. Leather (^o., he was retained as 
superintendent, until lie resigned in 1896 to 
accept the management of the manufacturing 
end of the Munising Leather Co 

In 1893 Mr. Hill helped to organize the 
Farmers' National Bank of Athens, Pennsyl- 
vania, and was one of the directors of that 
institution rmtil he moved west; but is still 
one of the stockholdei^. He formed a part- 
nership in 1899 with R. J. Clark, and pur- 
chased the hemlock timber on 184,000 acres 
of land in Alger county, Michigan, where the 
company is no^v manufacturing the product. 

In 1891 My. Hill married Mabel Louise, 
daughter of Edward Livingstone Snow, of 
Boonville, N. Y., and to them were born four 
children — Donald, Dorothy, John and 
George, Jr., of whom the latter two only sur- 
vive. 



158 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




JOHN D. LANGELL. 

LANGEI.L, JOH:Nr D. John D. Langell, 
the present superintendent of the Dry Dock 
and Shipbuilding Departments of the Detroit 
Shipbuilding Company's plant, at the foot of 
Orleans street, Detroit, Michigan, was bom in 
St. Clair, St. Clair county, Michigan, June 27, 
1865. His educational opportunities were 
limited to an incomplete course at the St. 
Clair city schools, supplemented later on by 
a course at the Spencerian Commercial Col- 
lege, at Cleveland, Ohio, at which latter place 
he received a business education that has 
served him excellently in making his way in 
the business world. 

His father, Hon. Simon Langell, is a ship- 
builder, and for many years, since 1863, has 
maintained a shipbuilding plant at St. Clair, 
doing a limited business in that line, but 
noted for the excellency of the work turned 
out by the plant. His mother, whose maiden 
name was Helen M. Decoe, was formerly a 
teacher in the schools of St. Clair county, 
where she met and married, in 1859, the 
father of the subject of this sketch. Mrs. 
Langell died in 1893. 

In his father's shipbuilding yard young 



Langell first came in contact with that trade 
and received his on*ly mechanical education 
and experience. Commencing when a very 
young man, he learned all the different 
branches of the trade, and became skilled in 
handling the various tools of the shipbuild- 
er's outfit. John was still in his teens when 
his father finding difficulty in securing a suit- 
able superintendent for an important depart- 
ment in his works, called the boy from school 
and installed him in the position. He was 
instructed in the department by his father, 
and taking hold with a will, soon acquired a 
familiarity with the business. 

He remained with his father until January 
7, 1899, when the Detroit company, search- 
ing for a man to take entire charge of their 
Orleans street docks and shipbuilding works, 
offered him three months' trial in the position. 
He accepted and at the end of the three trial 
months, he was informed that the company 
Avas satisfied with his work and wished him to 
retain the position. 

At the present writing Mr. Langell is un- 
married. He is a member of Palmer Lodge, 
Knights of Pythias, and has been through 
the various chairs in that lodge. 

Mr. Langell has many friends, and the fac- 
ulty of keeping them. As a practical ship- 
builder, Mr. Langell, through his early train- 
ing in that profession, is considered one of the 
most practical and skillful on the lakes. He 
has a thorough knowledge of every depart- 
ment, and if need be can take hold of any 
branch of the work of constructions. He is 
well liked by the men under him and possesses 
their confidence as well as their esteem. He 
is a young man to occupy so important a posi- 
tion, being only 35 years of age at the present 
writing, yet he has a keen business percep- 
tion, which, coupled with his brief term at 
the Commercial College, has given him exec- 
utive ability of considerable scope and power. 
Mr. Langell has never had time to devote to 
politics, for he has been a busy man all his 
life. Lie lives in Detroit, and occasionally 
finds time to visit his father in the old home 
at St. Clair. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



159 



HAMBIl^ZER, JOSEPH F. Joseph F. 
Hambitzer, of Houghton, Michigan, is a self- 
made and self-educated man. 

He was born in Eond du Lac, Wisconsin, 
Deaember 13, 1857. He is of Oerman par- 
entage, his father, William Hambitzer, being 
a physician who came to this country from 
Colon, Germany, in 1852. Young Ham- 
bitzer was sent to the village school at British 
Hollow, Grant County, Wisconsin, where he 
remained until he was 14 years of age, and 
left to go to work as an errand boy in a dry 
goods store at Platte ville, AVisconsin. He 
worked in this capacity for two years, and 
then left Wisconsin and went to Hancock in 
search of employment, but after looking 
around for some time he finally had to go to 
work as a trammer in the Concord mine, now 
a part of the Arcadian Copper Company's 
property. He practiced running a drill, and in 
six months had mastered the tool sufficiently 
well to become a miner, and as such he 
worked until 1878. He took up the study 
of arithmetic, gramiuar and history, and in 
the fall attended a teacher's examination, 
passed and was given a third grade certificate. 
For a year he taught school in Franklin Town- 
ship at $65 per month, and the following three 
years he was clerk in the Hancock postofhce 
under Thomas 'N. Lee. The next five years 
he acted as deputy postmaster under M. L. 
Cardell. During the following two years he 
read with Chandler, Grant & Gray, and in 
the fall of 1886 was elected county treasurer 
of Houghton County, and re-elected without 
opposition in 1888. In the fall of 1892 Mr. 
Hambitzer was nominated for State Treasurer 
of Michigan on the Eepublican ticket in op- 
position to the Eepublican State Central Com- 
mittee. In the spring of 1894 Mr. Hambitzer 
was asked to resign the office of state treasurer 
altogether, in company with the other mem- 
bers of the state board of canvassers, secretary 
of state and state land commissioner, because 
they had not discovered that the tabulation of 
votes made in the secretary of state's office had 
been padded and forged. 

Mr. Hambitzer refused to resign and fought 




JOSEPH F. HAMBITZER. 

the case in the Supreme Court, which tribunal 
held that the governor was sole judge of what 
constituted negligence for wliich he could re- 
move state officials, and so in March, 1894, 
Mr. Hambitzer resigned the state treasurer- 
ship. Eeturning to Houghton, Michigan, he 
remained there for a short period and then 
left to enter the law firm of Ball & Ball at 
Marquette, and March 6, 1895, he was ad- 
mitted to tlie bar by Judge John W. Stone 
and commenced his practice at Houghton, 
Michigan, wliere today he is one of the lead- 
ing attorneys of the Upper Peninsula. 

Mr. Hambitzer was appointed Deputy Oil 
Inspector July 1, 1897, and reappointed to 
this office July 5, 1899. In 1882 he married 
Miss Emma Nichols, daughter of Stephen 
Nichols, a carpenter boss at Quincy, Michi- 
gan. The marriage took place at Hancock. 
Two children have been the result of that 
union, Blanche and Mabel, both of whom are 
in Chicago attending the Chicago Conserva- 
tory of Music. 

Mr. Hambitzer is a Mason, and belongs to 
the Knights of Pythias, Benevolent Protec- 
tive Order of Elks and the Knights of the 
Maccabees. 



160 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 








JOHN IRA BELLAIRE. 



BELLAIEE, JOHN IRA. The history 
of John Ira Bellaire's early life is one of 
struggles and privations. The boy scrambled 
along" through life unassisted^ working hard 
for every little advance he made, and going 
without many of those things which makes 
the existence of the average boy worth living. 
It has been all hard work and very little play- 
with him J yet in the twenty-nine years of his 
straggles he has made a comfortable niche 
for himself, and is still ambitious to rise 
higher. He was bom in Michigan, near 
White Pigeon, November 27, 1871. His 
father, John Vincent Bellaire, was a small 
farmer near that place with a large family 
of children, to support, and only a little farm 
to furnish the means to do so. All the chil- 
dren helped in the work about the farm, and 
young John did his share until he was 
eighteen years of age, attending the district 
schools when he could get the time to do so, 
and never receiving any money from his 
father to help him along in his studies. What 
money he got he made himself, the first being 
from the sale of some potatoes he raised in a 
hollow on his father's farm. He wanted an 
education, and sought every loophole that 



presented itself in order to obtain one. When 
in his eighteenth year he found employment 
doing chores and t)dd jobs for John G. 
Schurtz, a banker at White Pigeon, for his 
board and lodging. Saturdays when his work 
was done, he earned extra money by splitting 
wood for the villagers, to pay for his tuition, 
books and clothing. Supporting himself in 
this manner he managed to attend the village 
school. The following spring he worked in 
the machine shop of the Cyclone Fanning 
Mill Co., at White Pigeon, saving his earn- 
ings so that he was able to attend school the 
following winter, securing a position as clerk 
in H. M. Ellis's grocery store, before and 
after school and on Saturdays to pay for his 
board and clothing. 

The father was unable to assist him, owing 
to the large family that demanded all his 
time and money, so young John had to learn 
to go it alone, and he has never regretted 
that experience for it prepared him better 
for life than any other means would have 
done. He worked steadily in the grocery 
business during the following summer, gradu- 
ating from school in June, 181)1. Continu- 
ing the store as clerk and bookkeeper at a 
substantial salary until the summer of '92, 
when he secured a third grade teacher's cer- 
tificate and that fall taught school in Dis- 
trict No. 4, near South Boardman, Kalkaska 
County, Michigan. 

Mr. Bellaire, in the spring of 1893, saw 
an advertisement in The News, and in an- 
swer to it went to Seney, Michigan, where he 
secured a position at $35 a month as clerk 
with the firm of Morse & Schneider. He 
was gradually advanced by his employers, 
and in 1895, when the firm established a 
branch at Grand Marais, was made general 
manager of the Seney store, which position 
he occupied until September 26, 1899, when 
he succeeded to the entire business of the firm 
at Seney, Michigan. 

In his political convictions he is a Kepub- 
lican and was appointed postmaster at Seney 
in 1897. He has also been township treas- 
urer at Seney. Mr. Bellaire married Sarah 
I., daughter of Capt. L. K. Boynton, of St. 
Ignace, in 1896, and returned at once to 
Seney, where he settled down to happy do- 
mestic life, in a comfortable home. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



161 



HEBAED, CHAELES. Students at the 
University of Michigan who receive the 
healthful benefits of the beautifully equipped 
Women's Gymnasium attached- to that col- 
lege, must feel a certain amount of gratitude 
to Charles Hebard, of Pequaming, Michigan, 
who was instrumental in raising the funds to 
erect the building and who raised $10,000, 
one-half, of which he gave from his own per- 
sonal purse. 

Charles Hebard was born at Lebanon, Con- 
necticut, January 9, 1831. His father, 
Lamed Hebard, was a direct descendant of 
Eobert Hebard, the original founder of the 
Hebard family in the United States, and an 
early settler in the New England colonies. 
His mother was Miss Strong, of the old Con- 
necticut family, and a direct descendant of 
Gov. Bradford, of that state. 

Charles Hebard had the benefit of an ex- 
cellent school education, and at 19 years of 
age graduated from the Academy at West- 
field, Massachusetts. After leaving school 
he clerked for a year and kept books for the 
Lackawanna Coal Company at Scranton, 
Pennsylvania, and his next employment was 
with W. E. Dodge, of New York city. 
He went to them in the capacity of clerk in 
1853 and after being two years in the employ 
of this firm he was made superintendent and 
given charge of its immense lumbering in- 
terests, comprising over 45,000 acres of tim- 
ber land. He started in at $500 a year, and 
his salary was gradually advanced until it 
reached $1,500 a year. He remained with 
the firm as superintendent and manager of 
their large lumbering plant for 11 years, and 
resigned to go into partnership with A. G. P. 
Dodge, a son of his employer. The new firm 
opened a lumber manufacturing plant at 
Williamsport, Pa., under the firm name of 
Dodge & Co. They were eminently suc- 
cessful in the new enterprise, and the part- 
nership continued until 1872, when Mr. 
Hebard withdrew from the company. After 
leaving the firm, Mr. Hebard came to 
Michigan and located at Detroit, residing 




CHARIiES HBBARD. 

there during the years of 1872, '73 and '74, 
and organizing the firm of Hebard, Hawley 
& Co. The firm built and operated a large 
lumber manufacturing plant at Cleveland, 
Ohio, but had Detroit for their main ofiice. 
In 1874 Mr. Hebard disposed of his interests 
in the concern and returned to Pennsylvania, 
The plant A\as destroyed by fire in 1877 and 
Mr. Hebard returned to Michigan and com- 
menced lumbering operations in Baraga 
county, and the following year he built his 
immense mill at Paquaming, which he has 
since operated. He was regent of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan from 1888 until 1894. 

Mr. Hebard married Miss Mary C. Case, 
daughter of Samuel Case, at Tobyhamna, 
Pennsylvania, in 1858. They have four 
children, Julia E., Charles S., junior member 
of the firm of Charles Hebard & Sons, Maiy 
E. and Daniel Larned Hebard, the latter of 
the firm of H. M. Tyler & Co., North Tona- 
wanda, New York. 

Mr. Hebard still resides in Pequaming and 
his residence there is one of the prettiest in 
that citv. 



162 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




FRED. HURLBURT BEGOLE. 

BEGOLE, FRED. HURLBURT. Cop- 
per has made Michigan famous, and the de- 
velopment of the rich mining properties in 
this state is due to the energy and hard work 
of Michigan men who have devoted their 
time and capital to the locating and working 
of the rich bodies of ore that have enriched 
the Upper Peninsula. 

Fred Hurlburt Begole is an owner and 
dealer in copper properties, and also in tim- 
ber and mining lands in this state. His in- 
terests are centered in some of the largest 
enterprises of this kind in Michigan, and at 
present he is a director in the Victoria Cop- 
per Mining Company, the Mass. Consolidated 
Copper Mining Company and the Ontonagon 
National Bank, at Rockland, Michigan. With 
ex-Lieut-Gov. Dunstan he promoted and put 
on the market the Victoria Mining Company 
at Ontonagon county, selling $700,000 worth 
of stock in fifteen days. 

Fred. Hurlburt Begole was bom in 
"Flint, Michigan, October 22, 1866. His 
father, Philo M. Begole, was a descendant of 
Capt. Thomas Bowles, who served during the 
revolutionarj' war, and his mother a descen- 



dant of Dr. Ulysses Hurlburt, a surgeon 
during the war of 1812, and from the Starr 
family of Connecticut. Josiah W. Begole, 
his uncle, is the ex-governor of Michigan. 

Fred. Begole was educated in the district 
schools and at 14 years of age was in the 
Flint High School. His education was paid 
for by himself, as he taught school in order 
to earn the money for this purpose. He 
earned $24 a month teaching at Rogerville, 
Genesee county, and later worked three 
months in the drug store of Alvin Holt, at 
Detroit, Michigan. 

He went to the Upper Peninsula in 1885 as 
principal of the schools at Baraga, Michigan, 
and taught there three years. During the 
last year he edited and published the Baraga 
County "News. In 1888 he went to the lum- 
ber woods at a salary of $26 a month for 
Thomas Nestor, and later he became an oper- 
ator himself, putting five million feet of logs 
into the Ontonagon river. He was saving, 
and when 21 years of age he had $1,500 in 
the bank. He bought and sold logs and tim- 
ber and operated a small saw mill at Mar- 
quette, doing a successful business. In 1891 
he entered into a partnership with Hon. Peter 
White and embarked in the insurance business 
under the firm name of White & Begole and 
continued with Mr. White until August, 
1896. During all this time he did not neg- 
lect his lumbering interests, and he also be- 
came interested in the buying and selling of 
mineral properties, making a feature of open- 
ing and developing old mining properties in 
Ontonagon county. 

In 1890 Mr. Begole married Miss Gertrude 
C, daughter of Milan S. Elmore, at Flint, 
Michigan. Four children have been the re- 
sult of the union. Donald M., Charles E., 
Fred. H., Jr., and Elizabeth G. The eldest, 
Donald M., is eight years of age. 

Mr. Begole owns a fine home'at Marquette, 
where he now resides and is highly respected 
as an energetic and successful and represen- 
tative business man. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



163 



JOCHIM, JOHN WALFEID. Success 
has greeted the efforts of John Walfrid 
Jochim since he first came to America from 
his native country, Sweden, and from an 
humble miner he has advanced himself until 
at the present day his name appears at the 
head of one of the largest hardware firms on 
the Upper Peninsula, the John W. Jochim 
Hardware Company. 

J. W. Jochim was bom in Matala, Sweden, 
October 12, 1845. He comes of an excellent 
family there, his grandfather having for years 
been a member of the Swedish Congress. His 
parents were well to do, and the boy^s educa- 
tion was commenced in the public schools of 
Matala, which after advancing through the 
various grades he left in order to attend the 
Linkoping College. He put in eight and 
a half years' work and study at college, 
studying zealously and taking courses in 
the various scientific branches preparatory 
to following a military career. In 1866 his 
father met with financial reverses and young 
Jochim was compelled to enter the business 
world. 

He found work as clerk in a mercantile 
firm at Stockholm, and remained with the 
firm from 1866 until 1868. In 1869 he came 
to the United States. Upon his arrival he 
started westward, and arrived in Ishpeming, 
Michigan, August 16, 1869, with three 25- 
cent pieces in his pockets. He found work 
the very next day at the Washington mine, 
at $2.50 a day. 

He worked in the mines all that winter, 
and in the spring of 1870 he gave up mining 
to take a clerkship in the hardware store of 
Col well & Co., where he worked for one 
year. In 1871 he engaged with J. B. Maas 
& Co., and assumed charge of thoir branch 
store at Negaunee, Michigan, where he con- 
tinued until 1872. He then returned to Ish- 
peming to enter the employ of the firm of 
Norberry & Warn, of that place,, taking the 
entire management of their establishment 
and remaining with the house until 1873, 
when Neeley & Eddy bought out the firm in 
August. 




JOHN WALFRID JOCHIM. 

He had saved a little money, and had long 
entertained the idea of entering the hardware 
business for himself. In order to do this now 
he was compelled to borrow money enough to 
start him in his new enterprise, and the rates 
of interest at that time were very high. He 
borrowed $1,600 at 12 per cent, in order to 
complete his stock of hardware, business was 
brisk and his class of goods very much in 
demand, so he was successful from the outset, 
and the business has increased yearly, so that 
Mr. Jochim today is reckoned as one of the 
most successful business men in Ishpeming. 
He is the president of and a stockholder in 
the Marquette Hardware Company, Limited, 
of Marquette, Mich. 

Mr. Jochim married in 1873 Miss Gustafva 
Wetterlund, at Ishpeming. He has one child, 
Howard' W. Mr. Jochim is a Kepublican. 
In 1888 he was alderman of the city of Ish- 
peming, and a member of the School Board 
from 1878 until 1881. He was elected Sec- 
retary of State in 1891 with Governor Bichf 
and resigned in June, 1892. He owns a 
beautiful residence in Ishpeming, where he 
is a respected and valued citizen. 



164 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




r^^Sfi 



GEORGE A. TRUEJMAN. M. D. 

TKUEMA?^, M. D., GEOKCxE A. George 
A. Truoinan is a yoimg and successful physi- 
cian and surgeon, living and practicing his 
profession in Munising, Michigan. He was 
bom November 28, 1870, near Orangeville, 
Ontario, where his father was a railroad con- 
tractor and hotel keeper. Young Truenian 
went to school when he was 9 years of age, 
but when he reached the age of 11 his father 
failed in business, and went on a farm, v/here 
the boy was taken and put to work. During 
tbe winter he worked in the woods in the 
Muskoka district, and when he was 17 the 
family moved to Michigan, locating on a 
farm which they purchased near Sand Beach. 

Here young Trueman secured a job pack- 
ing bran^ in the mill of Jenks Bros., of Sand 
Beach, earning $1.25 per day at this em- 
ployment. The next summer his mother 
died, and his father was taken ill and con- 
fined to his bed, so in company with his 
brother, young Trueman worked the little 
farm. The following summer he went to 
Newberry, Michigan, and piled cordwood for 
the Newberry Furnace Company, and in the 



winter again went into the woods to work 
near Dollarville. 

He commenced the study of medicine this 
same year, reading in the office of Dr. Mchol- 
son, of Xewberry. He read until March, 
when he entered the employ of the Chocolay 
Furnace Co., at Chocolay, Michigan. He 
managed to save $125 out of the little money 
he had earned, and with this he went to Chi- 
cago, Illinois, and entered the Rush Medical 
College of that city. The limited amount of 
capital with which the boy started upon this 
venture was the cause of much suffering and 
he endured considerable hardships in his 
etudent days at the college. He had, after 
paying his railroad fare to Chicago, and his 
tuition fees, just $12 left, and this was soon 
exhausted. On Thanksgiving day, 1891, he 
walked the street all day, with only five cents 
in his pocket, which hunger forced him to in- 
vest in a Thanksgiving dinner. It was a dis- 
mal day for him, away from home in a strange 
city, with tempting arrays of mince pies, 
gayly decorated turkeys, and other evidences 
of cheer glaring at him from the restaurant 
windows, and the odor of cooking assailing 
him at every corner, but it was a part of his 
education and he had to take it. 

By dint of hard work of all kinds, together 
with a little assistance rendered him -by a 
younger brother, he managed to earn enough 
to buy food, which he cooked himself. The 
next spring he became a book agent, and in the 
latter part of March landed in Howe, Ne- 
braska, with a prospectus and 23 cents. He 
traded books for his board and canvassed six 
months, earning $600, and going back to col- 
lege well fixed financially. He followed the 
same course next season and made $1,200, and 
graduating May 23, 1894, opened an ofiice at 
Newberry, Mich. Two years later he removed 
to Munising, where he now lives. 

Dr. Trueman married Miss Inez Lindsley 
Hunter, daughter of John L. Hunter, and Mrs. 
Susan L. Hunter, at Greenville, Michigan, in 
1895. 



aiSTORlCAt SKETCHES. 



165 



BREITUNG, EDWARD NICHOLAS. 

Edward Nicholas Breitun«^ has the larger por- 
tion of his business interests in the Upper Pen- 
insula, where he is fee owner of many large 
iron mining properties, and a dealer and owner 
of considerable of an area of mining and rich 
mineral lands in that section. He was born 
in Negaunee, November 1, 1871, and al- 
though now only 29 years of age he carries a 
weight of business cares upon his shoulders. 
ITe is is a director of the Negaunee Iron Com- 
pany, of that place, also of the Artie Iron 
Company, the Wolverine Copper & Silver 
Company, the U. P. Brewing & Malting Com- 
pany of Marquette, the Marquette County 
Savings Bank, Duluth Brewing & Malting 
Company, Duluth, Minn., the Breitung Iron 
Company, the Breitung Mining Guarantee 
Company, Limited, Breitung Bond Company, 
Limited, Negotiation Company, Limited, and 
the Beaver Iron Company, all of Marquette, 
Michigan. 

Mr. Breitung married in 1890 Miss Char- 
lotte Graveraette, daughter of Samuel Kauf- 
]rjan, at Marquette, Michigan, and has one 
child, Juliet Marie Breitung, aged five. 

The history of the elder Beitung is, how- 
ever, more interesting than that of the son, as 
Edward Breitung, Sr., was the man to 
whom all the credit is given for opening up 
the great iron industry that has made the 
Upper Peninsula of Michigan what it is today. 
This pioneer miner and promoter was born in 
the city of Schalkan, Germany, November 
10, 1881, where he was educated in a thor- 
ough manner and sent to the (college of Mine3 
at Meiningen, from which he graduated. He 
came to America in 1849, aoid located at 
Richland, Kalamazoo county, Michigan, 
where, in order to learn the English language, 
he attended the district school. For two years 
he clerked in a grocery store at Kalamazoo, 
and the following four years worked in De- 
troit as a bookkeeper. He went to Marquette 
in 1855, and engaged in the mercantile busi- 
ness. In 1859 he sold out his mercantile busi- 
ness and removed to Negaunee, where he asso- 
ciated himself with Israel B. Case and for sev- 




EDWARD NICHOLAS BREITUNG. 

eral years operated the Pioneer Furnaces on 
contract. In 1864 he commenced to open and 
develop iron properties and purchase mineral 
lands. He opened the AVashington property, 
and in 1871 began to open mines in the 
jSTegaunee range. The mining men of that 
district thought it a foolish venture and refused 
to support Breitung in his operations. He re- 
mained firm in his belief in the mining value 
of the territory and that fall he surprised them 
with the famous Ke])ublic mine, the largest 
and most profitable in the whole Upper Pen- 
insula. In 1873 he began explorations of the 
Menominee range w^here he located several 
fine properties. In 1882-83 he first became 
interested in the Vermillion range in Min- 
nesota. 

Edward Breitung, Sr., was a member of the 
state legislature from 1873 to 1887. He was 
state senator 1877-78 and member of CongresB 
1883-85. From 1880-83 he was mayor of 
Negaunee, and his useful life came to an end 
March 3, 1887. Edward Nicholas Breitung 
is following in his father's footsteps, and has^ 
many years before him to devote to furthering 
the enterprises left in his charge. 



166 



MEN OF PHOGRESS. 




GEORGE WILLIAM FREEMAN. 

FREEMAI^, GEORGE WILLIAM. 
George William Freeman is the youngest man 
having charge of any penal institution in the 
United States. He is the warden of the State 
House of Correction and branch prison at 
Marquette, and has held that position since 
1897, at which time he was only 30 years of 



He was born in Marquette May 19, 1866, 
where his father was engaged in business, and 
attended the public schools of his native city 
until 1882, when he went to the high school 
but left before the time for graduating. Jle 
then went into the employ of his father, who 
was operating a livery and sales stable in 
Marquette, and remained with him until 
1885. 

He then entered Bryant^s Business Obllege 
at Chicago, Illinois, and took a business course 
and. bookkeeping. He remained in Chicago 
for two yeers and then returned to Marquette 
in 1887 and entered the private banking estab- 
lishment of Knapp & Joslyn at Marquette. 
He was engaged as bookkeeper for the firm at 
a salary of $60 a month, and the second month 



in their employ the firm raised his salary $25 
more. Mr. Freeman remained with this firm 
until they failed in 1888, and he was then ten- 
dered the position of deputy collector of cus- 
toms under C. H. Call, which he accepted, and 
in that capacity he worked for one year until 
he was offered a position keeping books for J. 
M. Wilkinson, the banker. Mr. Freeman held 
his new position until 1893, and then became 
clerk of the prison under Warden John R. 
Van Evera. 

On February 19, 1897, the young man was 
called into the room where the board of con- 
trol of the prison was in session and tendered 
the position of warden, which John R. Van 
Evera had just resigned to take the manage- 
ment of the Lake Superior district trade for 
Picklands, Mather & Co., of Cleveland, Ohio. 
It was more than a surprise not only to Mr. 
Freeman but to every one else, for Mr. 
Van Evera's resignation had never been 
thought of. 

Freeman could not realize that this import- 
ant position was being tendered to him, had 
thought himself too young to accept it, but 
after he realized that the board of control was 
in earnest, and really wanted him to accept, he 
did so, and he has since proven a most efficient 
official. 

The Marquette prison is one of the best 
conducted in the United States, and since Mr. 
Freeman has taken charge of the institution 
he has made many improvements, favoring 
every new scheme that will tend toward mak- 
ing the prison equal to the needs of the present 
day. 

Mr. Freeman is of Irish and English de- 
scent. In his social connections he is ex- 
tremely popular, and belongs to the Ifational 
Prison Association of the United States, the 
Wardens' Association, the JSTational Union, 
Knights of Pythias, and B. P. O. E., in Mar- 
quette. He married Miss Millie Grace, daugh- 
ter of Alfred Thurbley, in 1894, and has one 
child, Louis Thurbley Freeman. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



167 



LOTJD, COL. GEORGE ALVIN. CoL 

George Alvin Loud was one of the few spec- 
tators who witnessed the battle of Manila 
Bay, when Admiral Dewey struck the first de- 
cisive blow in the war with Spain. He was a 
guest on board the United States dispatch 
boat McCulloch at the time, but serving as 
paymaster, and during the Manila expedition 
and battle had charge of the after magazine. 
He watched the battle from the time the first 
shot was fired until the last Spanish ship sank 
beneath the waters of the bay. 

George Alvin Loud was born in Hunts- 
burg, Ohio, January 18, 1852. His father, 
Henry M. Loud, was for many years an ex- 
tensive operator in lumber. 

George A. Loud attended school at Boston, 
Detroit and Ann Arbor. When he reached 
his seventeenth year his father had become 
involved in large lumbering operations in Os- 
coda, Michigan, and he sent to college for the 
boy and asked him to come to Oscoda for a 
short time until the lumbering affairs were 
less active; so, expecting to return to the Uni- 
versity and complete his education, he gave 
up college for the time and went to the assist- 
ance of his father. He started work tallying 
in the sawmill, and in a year's time was given 
charge of the sawmill. The following winter 
he had charge of all the winter work, and at 
the age of 26 had assumed charge of the out- 
side work of the lumbering interests of the 
H. M. Loud Lumber Company. 

The elder Loud at one period of his career 
met with sudden business reverses which sent 
him temporarily to the wall. He promised 
that as soon as he could recover his losses 
every obligation should be paid dollar for 
dollar. Both father aiid sons worked with 
renewed energy, and before long the firm was 
on its feet again, when, true to his promise, 
the elder Loud paid every dollar of his in- 
debtedness, and business interests now con- 
ducted by him are in a most prosperous con- 
dition. George Alvin Loud is the general 
manager of the Munising branch of H. M. 
Loud's Sons Company of Oscoda, and also 
vice-president of the company. He is also 




COL.. GEORQiE ALVIN LOUD. 

superintendent and general manager of the A. 
S. & N. E. railroad, and is associated in busi- 
ness with his father and brothers, H. N., E. 
F. and W. F. 

In 1898 he was appointed on the staff of 
Governor Hazen S. Pingree, with the rank of 
colonel, and during the recent war was sent 
by the governor as representative of the state 
to Moritauk Point, to watch the interests of 
the Michigan troops. His work was so satis- 
factory that the governor insisted on Mr. 
Loud going south with the hospital train. Mr. 
Loud married Miss Elizabeth Glennie, daugh- 
ter of John W. Glennie, a well-known lum- 
berman, and at one time a partner of Gen. 
Russell A. Alger. He has four children: 
Emma, wife of James Flohr, of Canton, 
Ohio; Alice, wife of Rufus Hatch, of 
Detroit, and Dorothy and Esther, who live 
at home. Mr. Loud is a Mason, a member 
of Moslem Temple, Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, Detroit, and also of the Fellowcraft 
Club of Detroit, the Sons of the American 
Revolution and the Benevolent Protective 
Order of Elks. He holds the Dewey medal 
for participation in the battle of Manila and 
another from the Sons of the Revolution ibf 
active service in the Spanish war. 



168 



MEK OF PKOGRESS. 




HON. JOHN MUNRO LONGYEJAR. 

LONGYEAK, HO?^. JOHN MIJNEO. 
Fifty years ago the great resources of Michi- 
gan were still in a poorly developed state, and 
the mining and timber lands were waiting for 
the young generation to grow up and awaken 
their dormant wealth. Jnst at this period, on 
April 15, 1850, John Munro Longyear came 
into the world at Lansing, Michigan. Hi^ 
father, John W. Longyear, was judge of the 
United States District Ooiirt at Detroit, 
Michigan. His grandfather, Peter Longyear, 
came to this state from Ulster county, l^ew 
York, and »Tacob Longyear, the original of 
the family in America, came to this country 
about 1700 and settled in Shandaken, Ulster 
county, 'New York. On his mother's side, 
John Munro Longyear traces his ancestry 
back to Josiah Munroe, who was a Connecti- 
cut soldier during the revolution and took 
part in the expedition to Canada in 1777, and 
after the Declaration of Independence moved 
to Pawlet, Vermont. 

John M. Longyear, when he reached the 
proper age, was sent to the village schools at 
Lansing, and at the age of 13 he entered the 
ppeparator}^ department of Olivet College. 



After a year in that college he was sent to 
Georgetown College, at Washington, where 
he remained until he was 15 years of age, and 
then returned to Lansing, where he became a 
clerk in the postoffice at $20 per month. 

The following five years he was an invalid, 
and until 1872 he worked in a drug store, 
woodworking factory and sealed lumber in tlie 
Saginaw valley. In company with the late 
James Turner, he went to Cheboygan count^' 
in the fall of 1872, and as Turner had a con 
tract to examine certain state lands Longyear 
did his first work as a "land looker." With 
one man as a companion, he traveled about 
and "looked" timber lands around Mullet 
lake. The outdoor work greatly benefited his 
health and he determined to make this line of 
labor his vocation. In 1873 he "looked" 
land in the Upper Peninsula, but the panic of 
that year cut off the work, and in 1875 he was 
without a cent, and "land poor." Although 
he did not have enough money at one time to 
buy himself a pair of boots, he held on to his 
property, which afterwards turned out to be 
rich in minerals. In January, 1878, Mr. 
Longyear was appointed agent of the Lake 
Superior Ship Canal Eailroad & Iron Com- 
pany, which became later the Keweenaw As- 
sociation. Mr. Longyear owns some of the 
best iron properties in the Upper Peninsula. 

Mr. Longyear married Miss Mary Beecher, 
daughter of Samuel P. Beecher, of Battle 
Creek, Michigan, in 1879. They have six 
children, namely, Abby, Howard, Helen, 
Judith, elack M. and Robert. 

Besides being the agent for the Keweenaw 
Association, Limited, Mr. Longyear is a direc- 
tor of the First National Bank, Marquette; 
part owner of the Xorrie Mine at Ironwood, 
the Ashland Mine and Aurora. 

In 1890-91 he was mayor of Marquette, and 
appointed a member of the board of control of 
the Michigan College of Mines, at Houghton, 
in 1893. Mr. Longyear published the first 
map of the Gogebic Iron Range in the winter 
of 1881. 



HISTOMCAL SKETCHES. 



160 



SUNDSTROM, CHARLES FERDI- 
NAND. A successful merchant and re- 
spected citizen of Michigamme, Michigan, is 
a Scandinavian by birth. His father was one 
of the first Scandinavians who settled in 
Houghton county in 1868, where the family 
remained for two years, then going to Mar- 
quette county and settling at Humboldt, 
where they remained for four years, where 
young Sundstrom's education commenced. 
Later the familj^ removed to Michigamme, 
where Mr. Sundstrom now resides and con- 
ducts a general mercantile business. His edu- 
cation was continued in the common schools 
at Michigamme, and at the age of 14 he went 
to work for Dousman & Watkins, general 
merchants, but being anxious to study phar- 
macy, he took a position with Dr. J. Van- 
dromter at a salary of $5 per month, intend- 
ing to learn the profession of a pharmacist. 
He studied pharmacy for eighteen months, 
and at the end of that time received $35 per 
month. The indoor work behind the prescrip- 
tion counter did not agree with him, as he 
was too ambitious to be so closely confined, 
and upon the advice of his friends he gave up 
the study of pharmacy and entered the em- 
ploy of John Hickey, who operated an exten- 
sive mercantile establishment at Michi- 
gamme. At the age of 17 he became asso- 
ciated with the firm of Hinchman & eTohn- 
ston, for whom he worked for seven years, 
and it was with this firm that he really fin- 
ished his business education. With less than 
$200 capital he started in business for him- 
self, and in less than six months his business 
grew so rapidly that he found it would take 
more capital to carry it on, and it was at this 
point that he found it absolutely necessary to 
look for assistance, which he soon found in 
the person of E. R. Hall, who is now vice- 
president of the Lincoln National Bank, of 
Chicago. The business prospered until the 
\vinter of 1891-92, when the failure of several 
large contractors, who were building the Iron 
Range & Huron Bay Railroad, caused a set- 
back not only to Mr. Sundstrom, but to the 
other business in the village. The work on • 




CHARLES FERDINAND SUNDSTORM. 

the new road was abandoned and the contracts 
were broken, so that by the closing of the 
iron mines and the failure of the railroad, 
Sundstrom lost over $4,000, which was then 
much more than his assets. However, he 
pulled through and paid dollar for dollar. In 
March, 1894, he was appointed deputy collec- 
tor of internal revenue and given charge of 
the whole Upper Peninsula. He resigned 
this position July 1, 1899. His record as 
deputy stands the third best in the United 
States, having collected about $300,000 a 
year in taxes and fines for the government. 

Mr. Sundstrom made investigations and 
reports from the Upper Peninsula for the col- 
lection of the income tax in 1895 and also 
made the census and report for the registra- 
tion of the Chinese. He married, August 15, 
1888, Miss Maggie Goodro, of Michigamme. 
Mr. Sundstrom is a stockholder in the Penin-' 
sula Bank at Ishpeming and operates a gen- 
eral store at Michigamme. He belongs to the 
M. W. A. and B. P. O. E., and in politics h 
an uncompromising Democrat. He has hee» 
a member of the Board of Education for yasro 
and abotit the only interest he takes in hmV 
affairs is for the advancement of the sefiooU 



MEN OF PHOGHESt. 




JUDGE JOHN WESLEY STONE. 

STOl^E, JUDGE JOHN WESLEY. 
John Wesley Stone was born in Wadsworth, 
Ohio, July 18, 1838, and educated first in 
the district schools near his home and later 
in the Select School at Spencer, Ohio. When 
he was but 16 years of age he commenced 
teaching school, earning only $17 a month, 
boarding at the nearby farm houses. He fol- 
lowed the profession of school teacher in win- 
ters until he became 21 years old. In the 
spring of 1856 he left his home and went to 
Grand Rapids, Michigan, arriving in that 
city with 50 cents in his pocket, but he was 
fortunate in securing work at once on a farm, 
and in the fall a school at Big Spring, Ottawa 
county, at $25 a month. 

He longed to bring his people to Michigan, 
and worked hard saving his money until in 
five months he had enough on hand to enable 
him to accomplish this purpose. The family 
arrived and located on a piece of land in the 
forest near Dorr, Mich. A great deal of hard 
work was necessary to put the new land into 
a condition for farming, and young Stone 
turned in' with his parents to clear up the 
farm. When ready cash was needed he re- 



turned to school teaching during the winter 
months. He commenced the study of law in 
1859, reading in the office^ of Silas Stafford, at 
Martin, Mich., and he was admitted to the 
bar before Judge Littlejohn, at Allegan, in 
1862. Two years prior to his admission to the 
bar he had been elected the county clerk of 
Allegan county, and in 1862 he was re-elected 
to that office. Through this position he was 
enabled to earn enough to pay the remainder 
of cash due on the farm, and establish his 
parents in a comfortable home. In 1864 he 
was elected prosecuting attorney of Allegan 
county, and he remained such until 1870. In 
1873 he was elected circuit judge of the tw^en- 
tieth judicial circuit. He resigned in the fall 
of 1874 and removed to Grand Rapids, where 
he entered the firm of Norris & Blair, attor- 
neys-at-law. The following year Mr. Korris 
retired from the firm, which then became 
Blair, Stone & Kingsley. 

In 1876 Judge Stone received the nomina- 
tion for Congress, and was elected. In 1878 
he was re-elected. After serving his last term 
in Congress, Judge Stone returned to Grand 
Rapids and formed a partnership with two 
attorneys of that city, under the firm name 
of Taggart, Stone & Earle. 

During the Arthur administration. Judge 
Stone was appointed United States attorney 
for western Michigan, and was engaged much 
of the time in the Upper Peninsula. In 
. 1887 he moved to Houghton, Michigan, 
where he practiced law until he was elected 
circuit judge of the Twenty-fifth circuit, in 
1890. In 1891 he moved to Marquette. 

In 1861 Judge Stone married Delia M. 
Grover, daughter of A. P. Grover, at Alle- 
gan, Michigan. He has four children, Car- 
rie M., wife of Fred. M. Champlin, of Grand 
Rapids; two daughters, at home, and a son, 
John G. Stone, attorney, associated with 
Judge John W. Champlin, in Grand Rapids. 

Judge Stone is the son of Rev. Chauncey 
Stone. His grandfather, Benj. Stone, was a 
Vermonter. His mother was a descendant of 
the Bird family, which came from England 
and settled in Vermont. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



NOKTH, GEORGE SMITH. George 
Smith North is one of the progressive busi- 
ness men of the city of Hancock, Michigan, 
and has alv;ays been a staunch member of the 
Republican party. 

The North family came to this state from 
Connecticut. Mr. North's grandmother, on 
his father's side, was Sarah Dowd, of the old 
Connecticut family of that name. His father, 
Seth D. North, went into the copper country 
in 1854 and located at Rockland, Ontonagon 
County, where he was warehouse clerk for the 
firm of Willard & Day of that place, one of 
the pioneer firms of the copper country. The 
elder North remained with this firm for a 
number of years, and then after working for 
a time as supply clerk for a Minnesota mine, 
in 1867 he determined to commence on his 
own account. He then opened a mercantile 
establishm.ent at the Quincy mine, near the 
town of Hancock, Michigan. The business 
prospered and later enlarged its scope by be- 
coming associated with stores at Lake Linden 
and Calumet. 

George Smith North, the subject of the 
present sketch, was born September 5, 1852, 
at Cromwell, Connecticut. When the fam- 
ily moved to this state the boy was sent to the 
public schools of Rockland until he reached 
his 14th year, and then he attended the 
Homer Academy at Homer, New York State. 
After finishing in this academy he took a 
year's course at the Milwaukee Business Col- 
lege at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

At the conclusion of this course he returned 
to Michigan and took an humble position in 
his father's store at the Quincy mine. He 
started to learn the business by commencing 
at the bottom, Avith a salary of $20 a month, 
and as he succeeded in acquiring a comprehen- 
sive knowledge of one department he was 
transferred to the next, and then to the office, 
until he liad become thoroughly familiar with 
every branch of the business. It was fortun- 
ate that he acquired this education in the com- 
mercial line, for in 1893 the elder North died, 




GEORGE »MITH NORTH. 

leaving the entire establishment to the man- 
agement of his young son. 

For a great many years G. S. North was in- 
terested in the Pemberthy Injector Company 
of Detroit, Michigan, but he sold out his one- 
quarter interest in 1897. Besides being owner 
and manager of the S. D. North Mercantile 
Company ut the Quincy mine, Mr. North has 
interests in several other large and important 
industries. He is one of the directors in the 
Sturgeon River Lumber Company at Chassel, 
Michigan; has a part interest in the Avery 
House and Hotel Egnew at Mount Clemens, 
Michigan, and is a director in the Mrst Na- 
tional Bank at Hancock, Michigan. 

In 1872 Mr. North married Miss Emma 
C. Briggs at Norwalk, Ohio, and three chil- 
dren have been the result of that union, two 
girls and one boy. Fannie is living at hoine 
with her parents in Hancock, Helen B. is a 
student at the Chicago Musical College and 
George Kent North is attending BchooL 

Mr. North is a Mason and a Km|^t Tem- 
plar. 



in 



MEN OF tKOGRESS. 




EDGAR KIDWELrL. 

KID WELL; EDGAK. The Kidwell fam- 
ily is a very old one in this country. The origi- 
nal founder of it in America came to Mary- 
land with Lord Baltimore, and settled in that 
state. 

Edgar Kidwell, the subject of this sketch, 
was born in Kensington, Maryland, July 15, 
18()5. His father, John H. Kidwell, was a' 
well-known contractor and builder in the city 
of Washington, D. C. 

When a boy, Edgar Kidwell evinced a 
strong disposition to take up mechanical work. 
He received the benefit of the splendid public 
schools of Washington, and after school hours 
and during vacations devoted himself to build- 
ing machinery and mechanical appliances of 
all kinds. 

He completed the course at the grammar 
school in Washington, and then took the clas- 
sical course at the Georgetown University of 
Georgetown, Weet Washington, D. C, gradu- 
ating from there in 1886. 



The following year he went into the con- 
tracting and building business at Washington, 
and met with considerable success. 

In the fall of 1887 he entered the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania to take a course in 
mechanical and electrical engineering, and in 
1889 he graduated as an M. E. The follow- 
ing year he devoted to instructing those 
branches at the University of Pennsylvania, 
and in 1891 was tendered and accepted the 
position of instructor in the Michigan College 
of Mines at Houghton, Michigan. 

Here he remained for eight years, and in 
the fall of 1897 he tendered his resignation 
to take effect May 31, 1898, and accepted the 
position of superintendent of the Arcadian 
Copper Company. 
, The place where this company's interests 
were centered and where Mr. Kidwell first 
took charge was in a dense woods with a few 
old log shanties in the clearing, and one old 
and rickety shaft house. He entered his new 
duties June 1, 1898, and immediately started 
to develop and improve the property. In one 
year under his direction six shafts were sunk, 
and three modem steel shaft houses erected 
and equipped with the best machinery. A 
large stamp mill was erected, and many other 
improvements made. The little clearing in 
the woods has grown rapidly and has assumed 
the proportions of a small town, and at the 
end of the first year after Mr. Kidwell took 
charge, a force of nearly 1,500 men were em- 
ployed on the property. 

Edgar Kidwell, in 1893, married Miss 
Mary O'Xeill, of Washington, D. C. He 
has three children, the eldest of whom, Har- 
old, is five years of age. The other two are 
Paul, aged three years, and Ruth, aged one 
and one-half years. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



173 



VIVMN, SR., JOHNSON. Those men 
who early in the history of the mining indus- 
try in this State, went to work in the iron and 
copper mines of the Upper Peninsula; com- 
mencing with pick and shovel, or pushing the 
tram-car that conveyed the ore out of the 
mine, have, Avith few exceptions, by sticking 
to this business, taken their places among the 
capitalists of Michigan. In working their 
own passage to the front, they have materially 
assisted in building up the State; forming the 
neuclus for little villages that have since 
grown into large and prosperous cities. 

Johnson Vivian, Sr., has been identified 
with mining all his life, and is today one of 
the wealthy citizens of Houghton, Michigan. 
His first work was in a copper mine, and he is 
still interested in several paying properties in 
Michigan. By birth Mr. Vivian is an Eng- 
lishman. He was born in Camborne, Eng- 
land, May 29, 1829, and is a direct descen- 
dant of Sir Vyell Vivian, 1295 A. I). Mr. 
Vivian's father and his grandfather were mine 
superintendents in Cornwall, England. 

Young Vivian attended the common school 
about seven years, and when he reached his 
fourteenth year he was put to work trundling 
a wheelbarroAv at a stamp mill, making about 
$2.50 a month. Two years of this work gave 
him the necessary brawn and muscle required 
by a nuner, and at 16 he went underground to 
work and later became a miner in the copper 
mines. 

He remained in England, following this 
employment, until he was 24 years of age, 
and then came to the United States and Mich- 
igan. He went to work first at Eagle Harbor, 
June 19, 1853, as a miner in the Copper Falls 
mine, and in July, 1854, he was made cap- 
tain. He remained with this company until 

1856, and left to become captain in the Clark 
mine, where he worked until February 1, 

1857. From February, 1857, to October, 
1859, he operated a part of the Copper Falls 
mine on a tribute lease. He was made chief 
captain of the Phoenix mine, and in October, 
1863, superintendent, a position he held until 
1867. 




JOHNSON VIVIAN. SR. 

He left the Phoenix- mine in that year and 
was appointed superintendent agent of the 
Hancock mine, but he remained only one year 
and then resigned to accept a like position 
Avith the Schoolcraft mine. This was a new 
property, and Mr. Vivian installed the plant 
for the company, and opened up the mine. 
It did not pay, and work on the property was 
abandoned in July, 1874. 

Mr. Vivian was then made agent of the 
Franklin and Perrabie mines and in 1880 the 
Huron, Concord and Mesnards mines were 
placed under his management. From 1888 
until 1896 he was the superintendent of the 
Centennial copper mines, and he retired from 
active work- in the latter year. He still retains 
considerable interest in mining properties and 
is a large holder of valuable mining stock. He 
is also identified with the J. Vivian Mer- 
cantile Company, of Laurium, Michigan, and 
a director in the Siiperior Savings Bank, at 
Houghton, and the State Savings Bank, at 
Laurium. 

Mr. Vivian married, in 1863, Miss M&ok^ 
beth Simmons, at Oambome, England . lii^, 
have five boys and two girlsw , 



tm 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




IION.yOHN MULVEY. 

MULVEY, HON". JOHN. John Mulvey 
was born on a farm in Carrickonshannon, Ire- 
land, February 20, 1835, and received a com- 
mon school education in the schools near his 
native home. He left Ireland in 1852 and 
came to the United States to seek his fortunes 
in the new world, with 25 cents capital to 
start with. He went to Westchester county 
in New York state shortly after }\is arrival in 
America, where he found work on a farm at 
$11 a month and board. The Harlem River 
Railroad was being constructed about that 
time, and young Mulvey secured a job driving 
a team during the building of the road at 75 
cents per day. The following summer he 
worked in a brick yard, and in the fall went 
to Dayton, Ohio, where he worked as a farm 
laborer. May 25, 1855, he came to Michi- 
gan and settled himself in the Upper Penin- 
sula, working at first on the new docks then 
being constructed at Marquette, and after- 
wards as a coaler in the Marquette furnaces. 
He visited Detroit in the fall of 1856 and de- 
posited his savings, amounting to $545, in the 
Lyk Bank, and during the ensuing winter 
worked in a sawmill near Ionia, Michigan. He 



continued to add to his bank account and was 
making preparations to go to California, but 
just as he was ready to start the Lyle Bank 
suspended payment and his savings went up 
with the bank. 

He managed to scrape enough money to- 
gether, however, to pay his way to Marquette, 
to which city he returned in 1857. ' He found 
work in the Pioneer Furnaces at !N"egaunee, 
and afterwards for a number of years worked 
as a miner in the iron and copper mines of the 
district. Mr. Mulvey then became a contrac- 
tor and built a small meat market, and in- 
vested his savings in real estate in TsTegaunee, 
which was then a town of about eleven log 
houses. His success enabled him to retire from 
active business life fully twenty years ago, but 
he is still the owner of large quantities of valu- 
able real estate and business property in Ne- 
gaunee. 

Mr. Mulvey has held various offices of pub- 
lic trust from 1864 to the present time, in- 
cluding township clerk, president of the vil- 
lage of Negaunee three times in succession, 
member of the common council, city assessor, 
school trustee, supervisor, and in 1886 he was 
elected mayor of the city of Negaunee with- 
out opposition. In politics he was a Demo- 
crat prior to 1884, and as such was elected 
to the house of the Michigan Legislature of 
1881-82. Since 1884, however, he has in- 
dorsed the Republican principles, casting his 
first Republican vote for James G. Blaine. 
He was returned by the Republicans as a 
member of the Legislature of 1887-88, and 
again elected in 1895 to the same office by a 
vote of 1,842 to 737 for Henry W. Hoch, 
Democrat; 480 for Robert Blemhuber, Peo- 
ple's Party, and 177 for Trowbridge Johns, 
Prohibition. 

Mr. Mulvey was the president of the State 
organization of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
nians in 1880, and he organized several divi- 
sions of that body in the state, including the 
city of Detroit. In 1864 he married Miss 
Marguerite Donaldson, at Marquette, Michi- 
gan, and Mrs. Mulvey died February 9, 1893. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



DEE, JAMES R Enterprising and on 
the alert to take any of the opportunities for- 
tune may offer, James E. Dee, of Houghton, 
Michigan, has been active in building up 
his resident city, and aiding in the great 
enterprises of the present day which modern 
thought and methods have perfected. He 
is at present the general manager of the 
Electric Light & Power Company of Hough- 
ton, a concern with a capital stock of $250,000 
and also general manager of the Michigan 
Bell Telephone Company in the same place. 
He is manager of the Western Union Tele- 
graph Company in the copper district, and so 
in touch with all that electricity has done for 
the world since Edison first discovered the 
ways and means of best utilizing its forces. 

Mr. Dee is of Irish parentage. His father 
was a miner and came to this country about 
1850, working for many years in the copper 
mines of Keweenaw county. James Rogers 
Dee was born near Eagle River, this state, 
November 11, 1855, where he attended the 
district schools until he was 12 years of age. 
He then went to Houghton and became a 
messenger boy in the service of the Western 
Union Telegraph Company at $10 k month, 
and when not on duty at the telegraph office 
he worked as bell boy in the Continental 
Hotel of that city for his board. His work- 
ing hours were not as set down by the labor 
unions to-day, eight hours a day, but just 
twice that number and sometimes more were 
put in by the young man. The telephone at 
that time had not been brought to perfection, 
and messages were all called for on foot. Dur- 
ing his spare moments the youngster took 
every opportunity he could to learn the work- 
ings of the Moi*se system, and the operators in 
the office assisted him in becoming acquainted 
with the telegraph instrument. In six months 
he had mastered telegraphy and was given a 
position at $40 a month as operator at Eagle 
Harbor. Six months later he was transferred 
to Houghton, Michigan, and a year later was 
given the management of the Wester Union 
offices in the copper country. He still con- 
tinues in that capacity. In 1872 he intro- 




JA'MBS R. DEB. 

duced and established the first telephone ex- 
change in the Upper Peninsula, and for six 
years he devoted his efforts in introducing the 
telephone system under the Michigan Bell 
Company. In 1885 Mr. Dee organized the 
Peninsular Electric Light & Power Com- 
pany, with a capital of $250,000. This was 
tlie first plant installed in the copper country. 
It is a large concern, and furnishes light and 
power to many municipalities and corpora- 
tions in Houghton county. 

In 1899 Mr. Dee saw the necessity of 
good hotels to accommodate the many vis- 
itors who were coming into the country. 
He therefore organized the Douglass Hotel 
Company with a capital Vock of $120,- 
000, and a new hotel is now being built in 
Houghton, which will prove a very valu- 
able addition to the town. Mr. Dee owns 
many large busiuess blocks in Houghton, and 
is one of the promoters of the Meadow Coppet 
and other mining companies. He hfts beeli 
councilman in the village of Houghtdn, Md 
is one of the organizers and is the ^re(»etii 
chairman of the Oneyaming Yacht Olllb- M 
Houghton. 



176 



MKN OF PEOGEESS. 




CHARLES DAVID HANCHETTE. 

HANCIIETTE, CHAELES DAVID. 
Charles David Hanchette, of the law firm of 
Dunstan & Ilaiichette, Hancock, Michigan, is 
the son of Hiram Solon Hanchette, who for 
many years was a successful attorney at Wood- 
stock, Hlinois. He organized the Sixteenth 
Hlinois Cavalry at the breaking out of the 
Civil War, and served with his regiment as 
captain until nearly the close of the war, when 
the troop was captured by the (^Confederates. 
The private soldiers were paroled, but Captain 
Hanchette was shot. 

Charles D. Hanchette was born December 
13, 1859, at Woodstock, Hlinois. Here he 
lived until he was six years of age, when in 
1865 the news came of the death of his 
father. The family then moved to Chicago, 
Hlinois, where the boy was sent to school, and 
when he was old enough worked in order to 
help his mother in the support of the family. 
He attended the old Central High School, and 
carried a route for the Chicago Tribune for 
four years, earning $3 a week, which he con- 
tributed toward the family purse. His first 
work, prior to becoming a newsboy was in a 
law office in Chicago, where he earned $2.50 
per week. 



When he was 17 years old he graduated 
from the Chicago High School, and after a 
short period secured a position in the bank 
of Preston, Kean & Company, of Chicago, 
where he acted as a messenger boy at a sal- 
ary of $4 a Aveek. He followed this business 
for about a year, and then became connected . 
with the W. W. Kimball Piano Company of 
Chicago, and was made cashier in the retail 
department of the company. He remained in 
this position for two years, and was then made 
salesman for the firm, and traveled in the in- 
terest of the house on the road. 

He was assigned to the Upper Peninsula of 
Michigan as his territory, and was successful 
as a salesman. 

He had long felt a desire to study the pro- 
fession of law, and in 1884 he had saved 
enough money to enable him to take up the 
first rudiments of that calling. He entered 
the law office of ex-Lieutenant-Governor 
Thomas B. Dunstan as a student, and studied 
diligently for two years, at the end of which 
time, in 18SG, he was admitted to the bar by 
Circuit Judge Williams. 

He practiced his profession with varying 
success in Hancock, Michigan, for three years, 
and in 1889, Mr. Dunstan took the young 
attorney into partnership with him, and the 
names of Dunstan & Hanchette were coupled 
over the office of the firm. 

From 1887 until 1891 Mr. Hanchette was 
the prosecuting attorney of Keweenaw 
County and established for himself a splen- 
did record while in that office. 

In 1889 he organized the Northern Michi- 
gan Building & Loan Association of Hough- 
ton (younty, which has since developed into 
the largest local association in the state. 
He has been secretary and general manager 
of the association since its organization. He 
was president of the Michigan League B. and 
L. Association, 1897-98. Mr. Hanchette mar- 
ried Miss Nellie J. Harris, daughter of S. B. 
Harris, superintendent of the Quincy mine, 
at Hancock, in 1886. They have three chil- 
dren: Mary Estelle, born in 1887; Eleanor A., 
in 1891, and Dorthea L., in 1896. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



177 



]>TEWNHAM, RICHARD LINNEY. 

With but few early advantages, Judge Newn- 
ham, at the age of 50, has filled positions of 
trust', which, in their number and variety, fall 
to the 4ot of but few men at his time of life. 
Born in London, England, September 20, 
1850, the first seventeen years of his life were 
passed in Britain. He did not see the inside 
of a school house until he was eight years old, 
after which he attended one of the Presby- 
terian schools in Scotland for four years. His 
father came to America in 1863, the son' fol- 
lowing four years later, the father being in 
the 17. 8. ^aval service, where he served one 
year. Following this siervice, the family 
located at Saugatuck, Michigan, where the 
father opened a shoe shop, in a small way. 
Here the son attended the local schools three 
winters, working at whatever presented itself 
during the summers. In 1871 he secured a 
teacher's certificate, and taught school during 
the winter months, saving money enough to 
pay his expenses while attending the Normal 
School at Ypsilanti during the summer. In 
the summer of 1875 his father suggested that 
he take up laAV for his profession, making ar- 
rangements with Judge Padgham, of Alle- 
gan, for him to study law in his office. The 
judge gave him his board and also the use of 
his law books and such instruction as he might 
give in consideration of his doing office work, 
and after one year's study he was examined 
and admitted to practice before the bar in Al- 
legan. In January, 1877, he opened an 
oflSce in Saugatuck and for three years had a 
good practice there. In 1880 he moved to 
Allegan and practiced his profession there 
until 1894, when he removed to Grand Rap- 
ids, which city has since been his home. 

Judge Newnham's official record is a flat- 
tering one, and almost suggests the thought 
that the fates order the destinies of men and 
ordain them for certain lines of life. He was 
for one year township superintendent of 
schools at Saugatuck, held a position an the 
office of the doorkeeper of the House of Rep- 
resentatiA^es at Washington two years, 1888-9, 
Avas eight years a justice of the peace in Alle- 




RICHARD LINNET NEWNHAM 

gan, and two years prosecuting attorney of 
Allegan county (1891-2), was assistant United 
States district attorney for the Western Dis- 
trict of Michigan four years (1894-8), and in 
1899 was elected judge of the Superior Court 
of Grand Rapids for the term of six years. A 
case of some interest arose in Judge Newn- 
ham's court in 1899, involving the responsi- 
bility of public officials. In the People vs, 
Warren, Judge J^ewnham held that public 
officials are guilt;f of a felony in the misappro- 
priation of funds placed in their charge, 
whether intentional or otherwise, if above the 
amount of $50. This ruling was affirmed by 
the Supreme Court. 

Miss Annie M. Higinbotham, daughter of 
Peter Higinbotham, one of the first settlers 
in Allegan county, became Mrs. Newnham 
September 20, 1878. They have four child- 
ren, a son, Stephen L., being clerk in the 
United States District Attorney's oflS.ce at 
Grand Rapids, and three daughters attending 
the public schools. Judge Newnham is a 
Democrat in politics and was a member of the 
State Central Committee, 1892-4, and while 
at Allegan acted as chairman and secretai^ 
of the county committee. He is a member of 
the Michigan Bar Association, and his soeietj 
connections are the Odd Fellows, Maccabees 
Elks, Court of Honor and Knights of Pythite 



178 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 




NATHANIEL H. STEWART. 

STEWAE1\ NATHANIEL II. While 
Mr. Stewart is thoroughly American in his 
convictions and his impulses, and is demo- 
cratic, not only in the broad sense of the term, 
but in its partisan sense as well, it is not amiss 
to say that he traces his lineage from a col- 
lateral branch of the Stewart dynasty of Scot- 
land, and later of England. Charles Nelson 
Stewart, grandfather of N. II., came to Aijier- 
ica in 1780. Plis father, also named as above, 
was early designed for the Eresbyterian min- 
istry, but adopted manufacturing (wagons 
and machinery) as his calling, operating large 
works at Johnstown, N. Y., where N. H. was 
born July 20th, 1847. Passing over earlier 
experiences, he found himself in May, 1868, 
at Kalamazoo, Michigan, on his own resources, 
with seven dollars in his pocket. Willing to 
turn his hand to anything honorable, he found 
means of meeting his expenses, and entered a 
law office, for a time sleeping on the floor of 
one of the rooms rather than become under 
obligations to anyone. And herein is illus- 
trated one of his leading traits — to incur 
neither debts or other obligations. In March, 
1869, he accepted a situation at the village of 
Plainwell, taking charge of an elevator and 
produce house, at a salary of $75 per month, 
remaining there one year. His moderate sav- 
ings enabled him to resume his law studies, 
and in the Fall of 1870, the firm which he was 



with (Edwards & Sherwood) made him an 
offer, as an assistant, of $325 a year for three 
years. This being accepted he was admitted 
to the bar in March, 1872. Judge Sherwood 
was the active trial lawyer of the firm, and 
never went into a case without Mr. S'tewart's 
assistance. The firm were attorneys for the 
Michigan Central Railroad, and his services 
were so highly appreciated, that when he left 
the firm he. was retained right along as one 
of the attorneys of the company. He is also 
attorney for the Chicago & Grand Trunk Rail- 
road. His practice in the line of corporations 
and patents is large and lucrative. On the 
dissension of the firm of Edwards & Sherwood, 
Mr. Stewart became a partner with Mr. 
Edwards, which continued until November, 
1896, when Mr. Edwards retired from the 
firm and Mr. Stewart continued alone. 

A democrat in politics, and through and 
under Mr. Stewart's management, George L. 
Yaple was elected to Congress over J. C. Bur- 
rowes in 1882, and he managed the state cam- 
paign in the spring of 1888, when the demo- 
cratic state ticket was for the first time suc- 
cessful. He has been efficient as committee- 
man and delegate to conventions, and was the 
democratic candidate for Congress from his 
district in 1894. 

He takes an earnest interest in the develop- 
ment of the beet sugar manufacture, having 
been instrumental in establishing the Kalama- 
zoo plant, and represented Kalamazoo county 
at the Omaha National Sugar Manufacturers' 
Convention in December last. He has large 
property interests at Fort Worth, Texas, is 
president of the Lake Mountain Gold Mining 
Company near Sitka, Alaska, and has other 
commercial interests, and has acquired a 
moderately munificient worldly estate. He is 
a member of the order of Elks. 

Mr. Stewart's character may be generally 
described by the term sterling. He is posi- 
tive in his convictions, infiexible in principle, 
energetic in action, forceful and assertive, 
sometimes almost to harshness, but yet in his 
personal feelings, most gentle and tender, 
which is especially exemplified in his family 
relations, all traits that have distinguished the 
historic Stewarts. 

He was joined in marriage at Kalamazoo, 
December 14th, 1875, to Emily Frances 
Gates, daughter of Chauncey Gates, of Kala- 
mazoo. They have two sons, Donald Argyle 
and Gordon L., born respectively in 1882 and 
1885. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



179 



WEIGHT, CASS THOMPSON. Cass 
Thompson Wright, a prominent citizen of 
Greenville, Mich., was bom in Wrightstown, 
Wis., June 30, 1846. His grandfather, Hoel 
S. Wright, located and founded Wrights- 
town, and his father, Lucien B., was a well- 
known lumberman in Greenville. 

Young Wright divided his early days be- 
tween working on the farm and attending 
district school, and he took one term in the 
graded school of Olmstead, Ohio. His parents 
removed to Greenville in 1866, where the boy 
had another winter term in school. His 
father and his uncle engaged in the lumber 
business in Greenville under the firm name of 
Wright Bros., and the boy soon learned every 
department of the business, going into the 
woods in winter, helping in the spring drive 
on the river, and working in the mill in sum- 
mer in every capacity. He took his father's 
place in the firm when the former died in 
1868, and continued the business. There be- 
ing no railroads in the early days of their lum- 
bering operations, the sawed lumber had to 
be rafted down the river to Grand Haven and 
sent from there by boat to Chicago. The first 
three years the firm of Wright Bros, had a 
hard struggle for existence, the receipts from 
lumber sales being barely sufficient to pay run- 
ning expenses. 

In 1875 the F. W. AVright Company pur- 
chased the interests of the implement firm of 
Moons, Watson & Co., which for years had 
been manufacturing plows and stone rollers. 
They made a success of the new venture and 
in 1890 built a new brick factory and in- 
creased their line of goods. Today the firm 
manufactures plows, wood-sawing machinery, 
cultivators, potato-planters, feed-cookers and 
kettles, giving employment to about one hun- 
dred men. The business has shown a yearly 
increase, the output is large and the business 
still growing. 

In 1881 Mr. Wright put in the first roller 
mill ever set up in that section of the country, 
and this, together with his other mill, pro- 
duces the largest portion of the flour and food 
products consumed in that part of the State. 




CASS THOMPSON WRIGHT. 

Mr. Wright has many important interests in 
Greenville. He is the owner and operator of 
the Greenville Electric Light & Power Com- 
pany, furnishing the light for the city and 
power for some of the manufacturing plants 
there. He was formerly one of the directors 
of the Kanney Refrigerator Company, of 
Greenville, and is today one of the directors 
of the State Bank in that city. 

In politics he is a "Silver Republican.'' He 
has served his city two years in the office of 
mayor, and was an alderman for three years. 
In the spring of 1899 he was elected treasurer 
of the school board, and he still holds that 
position. 

In 1868 Mr. Wright married Miss Helen 
Fuller, of Greenville. They have seven chil- 
dren. Lucien is a bookkeeper far the Green- 
ville Implement Co. ; Ethel, wife of William 
Patterson, a farmer, living near Kalamazoo; 
Jesse, travelling salesman for the Greenville 
Implement Company; Fay, in the milUng 
department; and Earl, Hugh and Vivian at^ 
tend school in Greenville. 

Mr. Wright is a member of the Mickig^ 
Millers' Association, and not aifllliated witli 
any fraternal or secret body. 



180 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




EDGAR HUGH HOTCHKISS. 

HOTCHKISS, EDGAR HUGH. Edgar 
Hugh Hotchkiss is the son of Ephraim C. 
Hotchkiss, who came to Michigan in 1837 
from Medina^ N. Y., and the grandson of 
Loren L. Hotchkiss, founder of the town of 
Medina, Mich. The latter combined the oc- 
cupations of farmer, miller and Baptist min- 
ister, and was the first representative to the - 
Michigan Legislature, when this State was 
admitted to the Union. The original family 
came from Connecticut. Edgar H. Hotch- 
kiss was born at Hudson, Mich., September 
25, 1861. When he was about 18 months 
old, the family moved to Rochester, N. Y., 
and later to Buffalo. Here young Hotchkiss 
attended public school and was graduated 
from the Buffalo High School. At the out- 
break of the civil war his father had abandoned 
a prosperous business to enlist, at Hudson, 
Mich., in the Union army. Unsuccessful in 
re-establishing himself after returning from 
the service, he finally went back to his old 
trade, that of carpenter, and Avhen he was 13 
years old this trade was taught the boy during 
his vacations. Upon graduating from the 



high school, Mr. Hotchkiss secured a position 
in the treasurer's office of the Western New 
York & [Pennsylvania Railroad, at $30 a 
month. A year later the auditor's office was 
created and he was transferred to that depart- 
ment. He remained with the railroad seven 
years and was earning $1,000 a year when he 
quit. In 1888 he accepted the position of 
bookkeeper with the St. Tgnace Manufactur- 
ing Co. at St. Ignace, Mich., where he now 
resides. The company had not a regular 
bookkeeper and Mr. Hotchkiss' first work was 
to untangle the accounts and make a state- 
ment. At the end of three months he re- 
ported that the concern was losing money 
every day, and an investigation by the stock- 
holders verified this statement. The plant 
was closed down. The largest stockholders 
complimented Mr. Hotchkiss on his work, but 
remarked that he had figured himself out of a 
position. As there, was no way of figuring 
himself back again, he applied for and was 
given his old position with the railroad com- 
pany, and returned to Buffalo, where he re- 
mained until 1890, when he was tendered the 
position of cashier of the First National Bank 
of St. Ignace. He accepted and still occupies 
that office. He is also a director in the bank. 

Mr. Hotchkiss is interested in other lines, 
being secretary and treasurer of the Macki- 
naw Lumber (^o., and also engaged in the in- 
surance business, under the name of the E. 
H. Hotchkiss Insurance Agency. For two 
years he was alderman of St. Ignace. 

Agnes, daughter of elames E. Thomson, of 
Buffalo, N. Y., became Mrs. Edgar Hotchkiss 
on September 10, 1884. Three children 
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hotchkiss — 
Jean B., attending Waterman Hall, a school 
at Sycamore, 111.; Herbert H. J., at school in 
St. Ignace, and Rutheven, whom they have 
lost. Mr. Hotchkiss is a Mason of high stand- 
ing, a member of Ivanhoe Commandery, 
Knights Templar, of Petoskey, and a Shriner, 
of Ahmed Temple, Marquette. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



181 



PENBERTHY, FRANK. Frank Pen- 
berthy was bom in Grass Valley, California, 
April 3, 1858. His father came to America 
from Cornwall, England, and in 1849, when 
the world was set agog by the discovery of 
the large gold fields of California, traveled 
across the plains in one of the canvas-covered 
wagons, or "prairie schooners," and located 
in that country. He made the trip twice, and 
in 1851, Mr. Per.berthy's mother took the 
same dangerous trip in order to join her hus- 
band. 

The father died and the family then re- 
moved to Dodgeville, Wisconsin, where the 
boy attended the public ^schools of that city 
until he was 17 years of age. He then went 
to work as a printer's '^eviF' on the Chronicle 
of Dodgeville, at a salary of $2.50 a week, at 
least this is the salary that Avas promised him, 
but he had to accept it in the form of circus 
tickets and stovewood. This remuneration 
not being sufficient he quit the job and came 
to this state, where his brother was employed 
on the Menominee Herald, at Menominee, 
and owned a news stand. Frank attended to 
the stand, and set type in the Herald compos- 
ing room for a year, working for his board 
and clothes, and then secured a position as 
clerk in the grocery store owned by John el. 
McGillis at Mariette, Wisconsin. His next 
employment was in the sawmill operated by 
Ludington, Wells & Van Schaick at Menom- 
inee, Michigan, first working on the edging 
machine and then at the picket-saw, at $12 
a month. The mill closed down the following 
fall, and young Penberthy was offered a place 
in the store run by the same company. He re- 
mained with the company for four years and 
then in company with William Peters he 
started in the retail grocery business on his 
own account in Menominee, under the firm 
name of F. Penberthy ik Company. The bus- 
iness was commenced on a limited capital and 
in a small way but it was properly handled, 
and met with success almost from the start. 
Two years later, Mr. Penberthy had made 
enough money to enable him to buy out his 
partner and become the sole owner of the 




FRANK PENBERTHY. 

flourishing business. In 1891 he widened his 
scope of trade by entering into another part- 
nership under the firm name of Somerville, 
Penberthy & Cook, and doing a wholesale gro- 
cery trade. Later this company was re-organ- 
ized as Penberthy, Cook & Company, with 
W. O. Carpenter of Menominee as the com- 
pany. 

This concern now does one of the largest 
trades of any on the Upper Peninsular. Their 
goods go into Wisconsin and also all over the 
Peninsula. The first year's sales amounted to 
$300,000 and the trade has grown with won- 
derful rapidity so that in 1899 they exceeded 
a million of dollars. 

Mr. Penberthy is identified with the 
younger element of the Republican party. 
He was elected a member of the School Boai^d 
at Menominee in 1899, and will serve as such 
until 1902. He was one of the founders and 
is a stockholder of the Northern Chautauqua 
of Wisconsin. The grounds are near Marieu- 
ette, Wisconsin, and large meetings of the 
society are held there during the summer 
months. Mr. Penberthy is also treasurer and 
director of the Menominee Loan and Build- 
ing Association. He is a Mason. 

in 1883 he married Miss Mollie Farrier at 
Menominee, and he has four children; 
Pearlita, Paul, Arthur and Francisco, 



182 



MEN OF PROGEESS. 




PETER RUPPE. 

RtJPPE, PETER. For a man who com- 
menced his life in this country as a peddler, 
Peter Ruppe, of Calumet, deserves great 
credit for the way in which he has made his 
way to the comfortable position he occupies 
in the financial world of Michigan today. He 
was born in Austria, December 6, 1843, and 
his schooling did not commence until he was 
eight years of age. His school life was 
blended Avith work about the farm, for at 5 
o'clock in the morning the boy had to drive 
the sheep and cattle out to their grazing land 
on the hills and remain with them until 8 
o'clock, when, after a hasty breakfast, he was 
hurried off to school. When he became 12 
j^ears of age he attended a German school for 
two years and from that time on worked as a 
farm hand until he was 17. His father had 
emigrated to America some years before, and 
the boy now took a steerage passage for this 
country, and joined his father in St. Paul, 
Minnesota. For two years after his arrival 
in this country he drove a horse and wagon 
from door to door peddling, and in 1864 he 
started with his team for Hancock, where his 
father had a store. Arriving in Michigan, 



he joined his father and worked for him about 
six months, leaving to become a trammer in 
the Quincy mine at $00 a month. The fol- 
lowing six months he worked in the rock house 
of the Delaware mine in Keweenaw county, 
burning rock and packing the native copper 
in barrels for shipment. During this time he 
saved about $300, and with this he started to 
Chicago to make his fortune. He was handi- 
capped with a limited knowledge of the Eng- 
lish langua.c:e, and lie found that his serviccB 
were not in demand in the big western metrop- 
olis. For months he sought work until his 
savings were exhausted, and then he secured a 
place in a Canal street dry goods house and 
started at $25 a mon{h. This was very unsatis- 
factory when he thought that if he could only 
get back to Michigan, he could make $60 a 
month at his old job in the mines. He worked 
for this firm for three years, and then returned 
to Michigan, and joined his father again at 
Hancock. In 1868 he went to St. Paul to 
w^ork for a wholesale tobacco firm, and while 
there he attended the branch business college 
of Byrant & Stratton, where he learned book- 
keeping, geography, English, writing and 
spelling and secured a fair idea of the meth- 
ods of conducting business on the American 
plan. He returned to Hancock the next year 
and May 18, 1869, started the branch store at 
Calumet. He has been a member of the school 
board since 1891 and president of the board 
for three terms. In politics he is a liberal 
Democrat. He was the first president of the 
village of Calumet and was re-elected three 
terms. He has been township treasurer for 
two terms. He is vice-president of the Mer- 
chants' & Miners' Bank of Calumet, and a 
director in the Lake Superior Cold Storage 
Co. of Houghton. 

Mr. Ruppe married Miss Minnie Mertz at 
Calumet, Michigan, in 1874, and has six 
children. Minnie is at home, Peter E. is book- 
keeper for his father, George graduated from 
Michigan University as an attorney, Albert 
is in the store of Peter Ruppe & Sons, and 
Crescence and Agnes are at school. Mr. 
Ruppe is a Catholic and a member of the 
German Aid Society. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



183 



FULLER, OTIS. Otis Fuller, of Ionia, 
Michigan, was born on a farm near Elba, 
Genesee Connty, IN'ew York State, July 14, 
1853. His ancestors were Puritans, both on 
his mother's and his father's side of the house, 
both families being of New Hampshire stock. 

Until he w^as 12 years of age Otis Fuller at- 
tended the district school near his home, and 
when his father brought the family to Michi- 
gan, and located at Mason, Ingham County, 
the boy was taught the practical work of the 
farm, and his education was completed in the 
Fuller Academy, established by his sisters in 
the family residence. 

At the age of 19 he became a teacher in the 
district schools, and at 21 was elected town- 
ship superintendent of schools and secretary 
of the county association of superintendents. 

At 17 he engaged in the occupation of graft- 
ing trees and raising bees, in connection with 
farm work, this being really his first business 
venture, and he followed these occupations 
with financial success until he reached his 
twenty-third year, when he became a news- 
paper man. 

Attention had first been attracted to his 
ability in this direction by several trenchant 
articles which he had contributed to the Lan- 
sing Kepublican, while he was teaching 
school. 

His bright style interested a number of 
party leaders, including Stephen D. Bingham 
and W. S. George, and waiting on him at his 
home they prevailed upon him to purchase a 
half interest and take the management of the 
Ingham County News, published at Mason. 
He consented and at once entered the cam- 
paign. Ingham County at that time was a 
political hot-bed, and the young writer's style 
of handling political and general news sub- 
jects pleased the readers of the paper and 
made it a flourishing concern. 

In 1877 he purchased his partner's interests 
and continued alone for three years, when he 




OTIS FULLER. 

sold out to buy the Clinton Kepublican at St. 
Johns, Mich. In 1889 he sold the paper to 
C. C. Vaughan for twice as much as he paid 
for it. 

In 1889 Mr. Fuller was appointed Deputy 
Internal lievenue Collector, and served as 
such until 1894, nearly a year after he had for- 
warded his resignation to the department. In 
May, 1894, he was appointed to his present 
position, warden of the State Eeformatory at 
Ionia, by Gov. John T. Kich and the Board of 
Control. Mr. Fuller took hold of the institu- 
tion with the same zeal and business sagacity 
that had made his other business enterprises 
so successful, and the institution is now re- 
garded as a model of its kind. 

Mr. Fuller has always been a stalwart repub- 
lican and a counselor in the party. He is sec- 
retary of the National Wardens' Association, 
and was for years a member of the Michigan 
Press Association and of the National News- 
paper Publishers' Association. He was a mem- 
ber of the republican state central committee 
for two years; of the sixth district congr^i- 
sional committee for six years. He is a Mason 
and a Knights Templar, belonging to St. Johns 
Commandery, No. 24. 



184 



MEN" OF PROGRESS. 



f V "^i v/ 






' L 


^fcili^' 




>^^^^^^^^M 


P^plv,;'" ^ 


'. ' ,j,r 


c^SPf^^^^H 


^^^"'•' 


\^J§f^ 


^y^v'^t^.^'^^^^^H 


^^^&^€'' ' ' - 




^^^K ^" ' '1'^ '^^^^^^^jjUH^M 












k^hH 


K.' 


, ^ , '^ ^^^^^ 


^ra|^^^^^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^H 


^^^^P^^V"^ 








i^^^B 


^^^^^^^^^1 


^B|^^.^^ 


>^^^^^^H 


^^HhH^^^^^^^I 


^^mp'^w>- 


<^^^^^^S 


I^H 


W 


•^^^^^^H^B 


^^B ^IJjjj^^^^^^^^^^^^Hp 


Ik 






^^ 


i^^^^i 


^^K;^^^^^^^ 


v^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HI 


^^^^^^^1 


^^^B'1^5^^^^^^^ 


^ft^^^^^^^H 


^^^H 


^^''■•."%t^Ti"-- 


?^^^H 


H 




B 



H. R. WAGER. 

WAGER, H. E. H. R. Wager, of Ionia, 
Michigan, was born in Summit county, Ohio, 
June 4, 1835. His father was Jacob 
AVager, and his mother Betsey, both from 
the Mohawk Valley, in New York state. 

From six to tweh^e years of age he at- 
tended the district school during the winter 
months, and started to work in his twelfth 
,year as a farai hand, and later in a woolen 
factory until he was 18, earning at no time 
more than $4 per month and board. He 
then became a spinner in the factory at a 
salary of $26 per month, out of which he 
paid his own board. 

He was taken very ill while in southern 
Ohio, among strangers, and had very little 
medical aid or nursing. His parents being 
notified that he was not likely to recover, 
drove 100 miles during one night and a day 
with a team, and a two-horse carriage taking 
him home to Portage county. He recovered 
slowly and afterwards was given two terms 
in Hiram College. James S. Garfield was 
his cla^s mate in some studies and teacher in 
others. 

When he was 21 years old he came to 



Michigan and worked in a factory as a spin- 
ner in Battle Creek for one year, then went 
to Jackson to learn the clothing business. 
He started iu this business at a salary of $6 
per month and by the end of the first year 
he was receiving $40 a month. He was 
raised to a Master Mason in Jackson, and 
also took the Chapter degree in the lodge in 
that city. 

His employer in the clothing business 
failed during the panic of 1857, and for six 
months Mr. Wager clerked in the old Amer- 
ican Hotel in Jackson. 

He then Avent to Lyons, Michigan, where 
he studied medicine for two years, and even- 
tually got his first start in life. He pur- 
chased a stock of merchandise invoicing at 
$8,700, giving his notes for six, eighteen and 
twenty-four months, without security, hav- 
ing no money or property of any description. 
He paid the notes as they matured and estab- 
lished . an excellent credit. Mr. Wager 
married Miss Ophelia E. Libhart in 1859, 
and seven children were born to them, three 
of whom are living. One, Fred L. Wager, 
is in the lumber business at Mobile, Ala- 
bama; Ernest E. Wager is now running a 
line of steamers from Mobile to Cuba and 
C'Cntral America, and the only daughter, 
Isellie, married R. Lee Page and is living in 
Ionia, Michigan. Mr. AVager attributes his 
success in life largely to his wife and noble 
mother. 

In 1860 Mr. AVager sold out his business 
in Lyons and Avent to Muir, Michigan, where, 
with $3,000 net, he started business with a 
general merchandise stock. In 1870 he em- 
barked in lumbering with a net capital of 
$18,000 and is still engaged in that business. 

He bcH3ame a K. T. at Ionia, in 1880, and 
joined the Shrine at Grand Rapids in 1894. 
He has been president of the Wager Lumber 
Co. about 30 years, and president of the 
Stanton Lumber Co. about 12 years, with 
Julius Houseman, of Grand Rapids, and L. 
B. Townsend, of Ionia, as the company. He 
has bought and sold large groups of timber 
lands in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, 
AVashington, Alabama and Mississippi, and 
still holds large and valuable tracts in Ala- 
bama and Washington. At 65 years old he 
feels he is just in his prime and still remains 
in active business, being president of Ionia 
County Savings Bank, Lake Odessa Savings 
Bank, Ionia Electric Co., Michigan Clothing 
Co. and Wager Lumber Co. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



185 



PEREY, GEOEGE EUSSELL. The sub- 
ject of this sketch is one of the hustlers who 
have made Grand Eapids and Western Mich- 
igan famous throughout the land. Born Jan- 
uary 30th, 1849, at Bridgeport, Conn., he 
came to Michigan in 1852, his parents locat- 
ing in Detroit, where young George attended 
school and secured his start in life. His father 
was originally from Dunberry, Conn., where 
he was engaged in the hatter's trade, and his 
mother, Hannah Dobbs, was born at Dobbs 
Ferry, New York. The Perrys were origi- 
nally from Ireland, whence they emigrated 
to England, and then to America, in a very 
early day. 

At the age of fourteen Mr. Perry left the 
public schools and attended Patterson's pri- 
vate school at Detroit for two years. At six- 
teen he entered the employ of H. Simeneau & 
Co., druggists at Detroit, whom he paid $75 
for the privilege of learning the business, the 
first year. He remained with the firm three 
years, working his way up to a $20 a month 
position. He then worked his way across the 
country to Grand Eapids, where he secured 
employment in a drug store, remaining until 
1872, when, at the time of the great Chicago 
fire, he went to that city and opened a store 
for T. J. Bluteast. In 1874 he returned to 
Grand Eapids and married Jennie Blake, 
daughter of Alexander Blake, one of the earli- 
est settlers of Kent county, who for many 
years was engaged in extensive liunber opera- 
tions. Five children have been born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Perry, only one of whom is living, 
Jeanette, aged seventeen, who is attending 
Vassar College. 

After his marriage, Mr. Perry again went 
to Chicago, where he remained until the 
spring of 1875, when he returned to Grand 
Eapids as bookkeeper for L. H. Eaudall & 
Co., wholesale grocers. Six years later the 
firm was reorganized under the name of Free- 
man, Hawkins & Co., Mr. Perry being one of 
the firm, with Mr. Eandall as special partner. 
This partnership continued until 1890, having 
in the meantime merged into the firm of Haw- 
kins & Perry. In that year Mr. Perry sold 




GEORGE RUSSELL PEBRY. 

his interest and opened a brokerage office for 
grocery staples, which business is now a very 
large one. 

Mr. Perry is a Democrat and has always 
taken an active part in the campaigns of that* 
party. He was very prominently identified 
with the Tilden campaign, being a member 
of the county committee. He was city treas- ' 
urer of Grand Eapids from 1886 to 1890, and 
in 1898 was elected Mayor by a majority of 
738, and re-elected in 1900 by 1,804 majority. 
He is a firm believer in a liberal form of city 
government, and his campaigns have . been» 
waged along this line, with a success that has 
given him fame of more than local character. 
He was one of the prime movers in the organi- 
zation of the Michigan Municipal League, 
which was conceived for the purpose of better* 
ing municipal conditions which existed 
throughout the state. He is now th^e president 
of that organization. He is a free giver 
among local enterprises and has pi^omoted 
many interests for the city^s good. He was at 
one time vice-president of the Graiid Eapids 
Street Eailway Company, and is recognised 
as a pushing and popular representative bf the 
second city in the state, * 



186 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




WILLIAM MILAN EDWARDS, M. D. 

EDWAKDS, WILLIAM MILAN, M. D. 
Dr. Edwards is the present medical superin- 
tendent of the Michigan Asylum for the In- 
sane at Kalamazoo. Born on his father's 
farm near Peru, in the State of Indiana, he 
attended the district school, after arriving at 
school age, until his sixteenth year. A year 
was then passed at Smithson College, at I/O- 
gansport, Ind. While there he took examina- 
tion for a teacher's certificate and for the next 
two years was a pedagogue in his home school 
district, working as a farm hand during vaca- 
tions. Having saved some money, he entered 
the Literary Department of the University of 
Indiana, at Bloomington, where he remained 
two years, when the low state of his resources 
necessitated a return to the work of teaching, 
at which he was employed for a time in Union 
county, Indiana. Having resolved to adopt 
the medical profession in May, 1880, he en- 
tered the office of Ward & Brenton, physi- 
cians at Peru, where he passed a year in the 
study of medicine. In October, 1881, he 
entered the Department of Medicine and 
Surgery in the University of Michigan, gradu- 
ating with the class of 1884. In April of that 



year he was tendered and accepted the posi- 
tion of acting assistant physician at the Michi- 
gan Asylum for the Insane, entering upon his 
duties on May 1. In August of the same year 
he was made assistant physician, which posi- 
tion he held until June 1, 1891, when he was 
appointed to the place which he now holds. 
He has developed the ''Colony'' system of car- 
ing for the chronic insane, entirely reorgan- 
ized the power, heating and lighting plant of 
the asylum and made many other improve- 
ments. It was upon his recommendation that 
a detached hospital for acute cases was built 
in 1897, being the first in this State, and one 
of the first in the United States, a plan which 
is now recognized among institutions of this 
kind the country through as being most prac- 
tical. 

Dr. Edwards is a non-resident lecturer at- 
tached to the Medical Department of the Uni- 
versity at Ann Arbor, and was instrumental in 
affiliating the Pathological Department at the 
University wdth the asylums of the State, and 
a physician is now assigned at the Several asy- 
lums for the benefit of this department. He 
is a member of the American Medico-Physo- 
cological Association of the Michigan State 
Medical Society, and of the Kalamazoo Acad- 
emy of Medicine. 

For one who is as yet a young man, whose 
life has been spent, up to the present, in the 
acquisition of knowledge and in the study and 
.practice of a profession, there is but a limited 
field for the biographer. If the purpose were 
to indulge in praise or eulogy, the simple rec- 
ord here given is the highest eulogy. True, 
it does not stand alone. There are many 
similar instances w^orthy of honorable men- 
tion and imitation. 

On the paternal side, Dr. Edwards is of 
]S^ew York stock. His grandfather, Uzil, 
came to Cincinnati from New Jersey in 1804, 
where his father, Asher B., and his mother, 
a Louisville, Kentucky, lady, whose maiden 
name was Elizabeth Brenton, were married. 
His great-grandfather, Moses Edwards, was a 
Baptist minister in ISTew York City. Dr. 
Edwards was married at Union City, Mich., 
in 1897, to Miss Emma Ardelle Merritt, 
daughter of George S. Merritt. They have 
one son, Wm. M., «Tr. The doctor is a mem- 
ber of the Masonic Fraternity, including 
Peninsular Commandery, No. 8, K. T., and 
also a member of Phi Kappa Psi, of the Uni- 
versity. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



187 



IIITsTMAN, EDWAED OHAUNOEY. 

^ The name of Hinman has been prominently 
associated with the business and social life of 
Battle Creek for half a century, through John 
F., and Harriet (Hayt) Hinman, father and 
mother of Edward C. The latter was born at 
Battle Creek, March 1, 1852. He graduated 
from the Battle Creek High School in 18G9 
and from the literary department of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan in 1874. After gradu- 
ating at the University, he accepted the posi- 
tion of sub-overseer in the United States En- 
gineering Department, on the Fox and Wis- 
consin rivers improvement operations. He re- 
mained in the employ of the United States gov- 
ernment six years, becoming an assistant en- 
gineer. Keturning to Michigan in 1880, he 
became associated with C. A. Ward & Co., of 
Port Huron, in the grain trade. The firm 
operated grain elevators at Port Huron and 
along the line of the Chicago & Grand Trunk 
Kailway. In 1882 he withdrew from the 
Port Huron concern and purchased the 
J. M. Ward Flouring Mill, under the firm 
name of Hinman & Ward, at Battle Creek. 
In 1888 Mr. Hinman disposed of his in- 
terest to Mr. Frank W. Ward, and during the 
next three years gave his attention to various 
private enterprises. In 1891 he became in- 
terested in the Battle Creek Steam Pump 
Co. (now the American Steam Pump Co.), 
and was made its secretary. When Mr. Hin- 
man became interested in it, it employed 40 
workmen, with an output for the year of $70,- 
000. The plant, under Mr. Hinman's man- 
agement, has forged ahead, and is today one 
of the most successful manufacturers of steam 
pumps in the world. It employs 150 skilled 
mechanics and had an output in 1899 of 
nearly $500,000. Its pimaps are sold in nearly 
every country in the w^orld, and it has branch 
offices in all the large cities of the world. The 
company was $50,000 in debt in 1893, and 
besides rebuilding its plant, was out of debt 
in 1897. It is one of the few concerns in 
Michigan that never had a strike or a claim 
from any* of its employes that was not amica- 
bly adjusted. 

The Battle Creek Hinmans are direct de- 
scendants from Sergt. Edward Hinman, who 
came to Stratford, Conn., from England, in 




EDWARD CHAUNCEY HINMAN. 

1650. He had formerly held the responsible 
trust of sergeant-at-arms of the body guard 
of Charles I. After coming to America he 
served in the Indian wars under Capt. John 
Underhill, becoming a commissioned officer. 
He also served under Gen. Stuveysant, and 
commanded a Dutch company in the wars b^ 
tween the then Dutch colony of ISTew York 
(or New Amsterdam) and the Indian tribes. 
On the mother's side, the Hinmans are de- 
scended from Maj. Wm. South worth and 
Gen. John Tillotson, both officers in the Revo- 
lutionary war. Mr. E. C. Hinman had three 
great-great-grandfathers and one great-grand- 
father in that struggle. 

Edward C. Hinman is one of the leading 
spirits- of his city in a business way, and the 
most successful manufacturer who claims Bat- 
tle Creek as a birthplace. He is one of the 
Republican leaders in Battle Creek and has 
served two terms as alderman. He is a Mas- 
ter and Royal Arch Mason and Knights Tem- 
plar, is a member of Saladin Temple at Grand 
Rapids, a member of the United Workmen 
and of the Sons of the American Revolution. 
He was a member of the Board of Visitors at 
the U. S. Naval Academy in 1898. He ias 
been twice married, first to Carrie L. Risdon, 
who died in 1887, and in 1890 to Isadore M. 
Risdon, both daughters of tke late Lewis G» 
Risdon, of Ann Arbor. He has two daugh- 
ters, Gertrude R. and Belle R. 



188 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




ALFRED JOHN GODSMARK. 

GOUSMARK, ALFRED JOHN. Alfred 
John Godsmark is of English parentage. His 
father, born near Horsham, Eng., came 
to this country in 1888 and shortly after 
was married to Miss Sarah Jaques, who came 
over the same year from Stourton, near Ships- 
ton-on-Stour, her birthplace and where her 
girlhood days were spent. The couple locate'd 
at Bedford, Calhoun county, where Mr. Gods- 
mark was born, July 1852, he being the second 
son. John Godsmark, Sr., died in 1895; the 
mother still resides in Bedford. 

Mr. Godsmark's early life alternated be- 
tween home duties and the local schools, until 
he was sixteen years old, after which his edu- 
cation was supplemented by attendance at the 
Rattle Creek schools, and at Olivet College. 
His first business experience was as clerk in the 
store of Charles Austin, at Bedford. He ac- 
companied Mr. Austin to Battle Creek, upon 
his removal there in 1872, and was clerk in the 
drygoods store of Austin & Hoff master for 
three years. He then formed a co-partnership 
with Clark Frasier in operating an omnibus 
line, which continued for three years. In 
1878 they closed out the business, when Mr. 



Godsmark bought out a shoe stock in Battle 
Creek, which he operated successfully for a 
year, when he sold out and went to Leadville, 
Colo., reaching there previous to and remain- 
ing during the first excitement at that point. 
From Leadville he went to Denver and thence 
to North Park, using six-horse teams in con- 
veying a stock of groceries and supplies 100 
miles, over the ^^continental divide." He 
helped to found Lulu, Colo., built and ran the 
first store, l)uilt and operated the first hotel, 
and was the first as well as the last mayor of 
the burg. He remained there four years, when 
the town was practically wiped out of exist- 
ence by the Middle Park riot, in which all the 
county officials were killed, together with some 
private citizens. From Lulu he went to Rus- 
tic, Colo., and entered the employ of A. S. 
Stewart, a railroad contractor and stage pro- 
prietor, serving in a confidential relation for a 
year. In 1884 he returned to Battle Creek, 
where he formed a co-partnership with his old 
friend and former employer, Hon. Charles 
Austin, in the fruit commission business, 
which gradually developed into the wholesale 
grocery trade. The business soon reached a 
point where a third partner was taken in, in 
the person of William IL Durand, the firm 
then being Austin, Godsmark & Durand, from 
which, in 1894, the style of the firm was 
changed to Godsmark, J)urand & Co. The 
house has gradually grown in patronage until 
it has become one of the most prominent and 
successful wholesale grocery concerns in south- 
western Michigan. 

Mr. Godsmark is not a politician, never 
having had time nor inclination for politics. 
However, he is a stanch Republican, having 
stood firm for his party for nearly thirty years. 
Was married in the spring of 1888 to Zoa 
Jeanette Stevens of Battle Creek. A daughter 
ten years of age is the only child. 

He is one of eight parties holding ten claims 
in what is called the Radcliffe Consolidated 
Gold Mining Company of Inu, California, 
near Ballenat, in that state, being one of the 
finest gold producing claims on the Pacific 
coast. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



189 



BIBLE, JOim FEANKLIN. John 
Franklin Bible, of Ionia, is a southerner by 
birth. His father was G. A. R. Bible, a 
planter, miller and general store owner at 
feulphur Springs, Ga., since the civil war. 
His mother was Marv Elizabeth Stephans, 
a relative of Alexander H. Stephans, vice- 
president of the confederate states. 

John F. Bible was born June 30th, 1865, 
at the home of his grand-parents in Marion 
county, Tennessee, near Jasper. 

The original family of Bibles came from 
Holland in 1730, settling in the Shenan- 
doah valley. This family had seven sons — 
six of whom had sixteen children each — the 
other, eleven. These seven sons were all in 
the revolutionary war. The youngest of the 
seven sons, Capt. John Bible, great-grand- 
father of John F., married a Miss Ryan, of 
the famous Irish family, and he was the one 
that had the eleven children. 

Young Bible attended the common 
schools in Dade county, Ga., and later the 
i^orth Alabama College at White Sulphur 
Springs. During vacation he worked either 
at his father's grist mill, general repair shop, 
or on the plantation. At the age of nineteen, 
through the help of some of his friends, the 
young man built and opened the East Point 
Academy, and acted as principal for three 
years. This academy was successfully oper- 
ated, and students were prepared for a col- 
lege course within its walls. 

Mr. Bible was always of a mechanical turn 
of mind, and having had some experience in 
wagon building and repairing at his father's 
shops, he entered the employ of the White 
Hickory Wagon Company, at East Point, 
where, after working through the different 
departments, he was made assistant manager, 
and w^as entrusted with the buying of all 
wood stock. 

In 1889 he accepted the position of assist- 
ant manager with the Owensboro Wagon Co., 
at Owensboro, Ky., and in addition to having 
the general supervision of the shops, he spent 
more or less time on the road, soon very 
largely increasing the output of this com- 
pany. His duties often took him to Michi- 
gan, and he became acquainted with some of 
those interested in the Ionia Wagon Com- 
pany, and was tendered a position as general 
superintendent of that company, accepting on 
July 7th, 1893. In 1896 he was elected sec- 
retary and general manager. He is today 
one of the largest stockholders in the com- 




JOHN FRANKLIN BIBLE. 

pany. They employ about 160 men, and 
have an annual business of about $350,000. 

Mr. Bible is a democrat. Shortly after he 
was twenty-one years of age he was elected 
an alderman of East Point, Ga., was shortly 
afterwards made president of the council, and 
performed the duties of mayor for nearly a 
year. 

Mr. Bible married Mary, daughter of Col. 
John H. Bell, of Hopkinsville, Ky., Decem- 
ber 6th, 1892. They have two children- 
Susan and Mary Bell. 

He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity, 
Ionia Commandery 'No. 26, Knights Templar. 
He is a past chancellor of the Knights of Py- 
thias, past exalted ruler of the B. P. O. E., 
member of the Maccabees, Koyal Arcanum 
and Modern Woodmen. He was honored by 
being chosen the five hundredth member of 
the Ionia Maccabees; and was initiated on an 
occasion which wsls made of State importance 
of this order. He is also a member of the 
National Wagonmakers' Association, and it 
was through his efforts that the Michigan 
Wagon and Carriage Makers' Association was 
organized, he being its first secretary. Mr. 
Bible is President of the Ionia Town and 
Business Men's Club, also of the Albert Will- 
iams' Ionia County Democratic Club. 

Although Mr. Bible has lived in Ionia 
but seven years, lie has made a large circle of 
friends, and is highly respected by all who 
know him. 



100 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 



b|gmF'^/T^^^f^ 


^^Mii 




^^^^:^t ? 


^^m^k'^yp'M 


^^^^s 




^^Wv 


W.^m 


H| 




■hBj^^^»-1,<'-^ 


y' '^9HH 


^^^^^^^1 




H^^^^^^\* 


*A^M|BHB[ 


^^^H 




H^^Kl 


■^ "''^^MJailiJ^B 


^^^^H 


^^^i^^^^H 


Ih^^pv 


'v^Bb^I 


^H 




l^p 




^^^^^1 




H^^^p3^ 


< ''" '"<^S^^H^I 


^H 




H^^^^ " 


A'^^'^^^^^^H^^BH 


^^^H| 


^^^Hk^^I 


^^^^p 


^i^hIHI^H 


^^^^^1 




1^^^^^' 




wM 


^^^^^^1 


K 




^v^^^^^l 




H||H^^^^t 


.;%^^9|H^ 


■Ps^S 


K^^^^^H 


B^^y^- 




^■jui^i^ 


Et.^^^^H 


H^^^^s^^p-^ 



WILLIAM JAMES STUART. 

STUART, AVILLIAM JAMES. The sub- 
ject of this sketch came of vigorous stock, his 
father, Alexander, and mother, Martha 
(Noble) Stuart, came to Michigan from Ire- 
land in 1843, settling on a farm in the town- 
ship of Yankee Springs, Barry county. Alex- 
ander Stuart was one of a family of four 
brothers and three sisters (many members oi 
the family spell the name Stewart). Wm. J. 
was born on the Barry county farm, Novem- 
ber 1, 1844, where the first fifteen years of his 
life were passed. Tv/o years at school in 
Hastings, and a like period at the Kalamazoo 
College and High School, laid the foundation 
for a higher education. Entering the Uni- 
versity in March, 1864, he pursued the classi- 
cal course until the middle of his junior year, 
and in the fall of 1866 he was appointed 
superintendnnt of the Hastings schools, which 
position he filled for one year, when return- 
ing to the University, he graduated in the 
class of 1868. For two years following he 
filled his former position of superintendent of 
the Hastings schools. He entered the law de- 
partment of the University in 1870, gradu- 
ating therefrom in the spring of 1872. He 
was then temporarily connected with the firm 



of Balch & Balch, at Kalamazoo, the firm 
soon taking on the style of Balch, Stuart & 
Balch. In November, 1872, the co-partner- 
ship was terminated, Mr. Stuart removing to 
Grand Kapids. January 1, 1873, he entered 
- the ofiice of E. A. Burlingame, as assistant 
prosecuting attorney of Kent county, and sub- 
sequently became a law partner, the firm of 
Burlingame &: Stuart continuing until April, 
1876. A partnership with Edwin E. Sweet 
followed, continuing as Stuart & Sweet until 
April, 1888. Mt. Stuart then formed busi- 
ness relations with L. E. Knappen and C. H. 
Van Arman, Avith offices at both Grand Eap- 
ids and Hastings. The Hastings office was 
closed after the death of Mr. Van Arman in 
1890, the Grand Kapids firm of Stuart & 
Knappen continuing until April, 1893. From 
this time until 1897 Mr. Stuart practiced law 
alone, when Sylvester W, Barker became the 
junior in the firm of Stuart & Barker, under 
which style the business has since been con- 
ducted. 

In 1880 Mr. Stuart was appointed city at- 
torney of Grand Kapids, serving two terms, 
and during 1883-85 was a member of the 
Board of Education, and was ex-officio a mem- 
ber of the board during his two terms as 
mayor, to which office he was elected in 1892 
and re-elected in 1893. In May, 1888, he 
was appointed prosecuting attorney of Kent 
county to fill a vacancy, and in the Fall of the 
same year was elected to and filled the posi- 
tion during the ensuing term. In politics, 
Mr. Stuart is a staunch Republican. 

In 1877 he received the degree of "M. A." 
from the State University, and for 1894-5 he 
was president of its Society of Alumni. 

Mr. Stuart is a director in the State Bank 
of Michigan, at Grand Rapids, in the Grand 
Rapids Board of Trade, is a director in and 
treasurer of the Citizens' Telephone Co. and 
the J. C. Herkner Jewelry Co., both of Grand 
Rapids. He is a member of St. Mark's Epis- 
copal Church, of Grand Rapids, of which he 
has been a vestryman for many years, and is 
connected with the Masonic Fraternity and 
Knights of Pythias. His wife was formerly 
Miss Calista Hadley, of Hastings, to whom he 
was married in April, 1874. They have no 
children, but a niece, Miss Edith Stuart, has 
lived with them since childhood, taking the 
place of a daughter. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



191 



CURTIS, MILES S. The State of Ohio, 
which- has given four presidents to the coun- 
try and was the native State of a fifth one, is 
also the native state of the subject of the pres- 
ent sketch. Mr. Curtis was born in Ashta- 
bula county, Ohio, April 1, 1852. His early 
life was sp6nt upon a farm and his rudimen- 
tary education obtained in a district school. 
At the age of 14 he entered a select school, 
and from this was graduated to the Austin- 
burg Institute, where he remained for four 
years. The last year in the institution he 
held the position of instructor in penmanship, 
and one year as instructor in penmanship and 
teacher in the High School at Jefferson, the 
county seat of Ashtabula county. At the 
age of 21 he came to Michigan and began the 
study of law in the office of W. J. Baxter, of 
Jonesville, but he was obliged to give this up 
and return to farming, his father requiring 
his assistance. This brought him in the vicin- 
ity of Battle Creek, and there he has since 
lived, dividing his time between a farm on the 
outskirts of the city and business interests in 
the city. Mr. Curtis was first elected super- 
visor of his township in 1891, and has repre- 
sented his district in the State Legislature, 
having been elected to the House of Repre- 
sentatives in 1894, serving during the session 
of 1895. He was mayor of Battle Creek in 
1898. 

While the official positions with which he 
has been honored sufficiently attest the esti- 
mation in which he is held by the business 
and social circles of his home, Mr. Curtis is 
perhaps more widely known through his con- 
nection Avith the Knights of Pythias, of which 
order he has been a member since 1879. He 
has attended every session of the Grand Lodge 
since 1880, and has passed the chairs, from 
the position of Outer Guard to Grand Chan- 
cellor. He has for several years held the posi- 
tion of Grand Keeper of Records and Seals, 
and has also held the position of Supreme 
Representative to the Supreme Lodge. In a 
fraternal publication, it is said of him that he 
^^Has wielded a remarkable influence in the 
affairs of the order in Michigan, and to his 




MILES S. CURTIS. 

credit be it said that influence has ever been 
on the side of true advancement and in the 
interest of higher standards and truer ideals. 
Were we to analyze his character and disposi- 
tion, we believe one of the strongest qualities 
to be observed would be that intense earnest- 
ness which has characterized so much of his 
life work. He does whatever he has to do 
with his whole heart and is never content with 
partial results. His well-balanced mind and 
excellent judgment make him an excellent 
guide. While possessed of the courage of his 
convictions, he has the happy faculty of differ- 
ing with one and yet not antagonizing his op- 
ponent. He is a fast friend and one to whom 
our brothers may ^link themselves with hoops 
of steel,' and be sure that betrayal is no part 
of his nature. Above all. Miles S. Curtis is 
a gentleman, not by artificial veneer and affec- 
tation, which form no part of a true man^s 
equipment, but because the Almighty turned 
him out from the crucible of creation a gen- 
tleman by nature.'' He is a member of the 
Masonic Fraternity, of the Royal Arcanum 
and of the Elks. 

Mary Nye, of Battle Creek, became Mra. 
Curtis in 1879. They have two sons, Lorelt^ 
a clerk in The Merchants' KationiJ Bank of 
Battle Creek, and Claude, now in the 8€»xii<Hr 
class of the Battle Creek schools. 



192 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




JUDGE MATTHEW BUSH. 

BUSH, JUDGE MATTHEW. Matthew 
Bush, eTiidge of J^robate, Shiawasse county, 
and a resident of Cornnna, Michigan, was 
born near Stone Eidge, New York State, De- 
cember 6, 1853. The family is one that came 
from the Hudson valley. New York, and un- 
doubtedly of Dutch origin. At the time 
Matthew Bush was born his parents were liv- 
ing on a farm near Stone Ridge, arid when he 
reached the correct age he waa sent to the 
neighboring district school, where his educa- 
tion commenced and continued until he was 
15 years of age. Two winter terms at the 
graded school in the village followed this and 
the boy then went to Port Ewen, N. Y., 
where he worked for his board with Dr. Jo- 
siah Hasbrouck and attended the high school 
of Port Ewen. He stood a teacher's examin- 
ation while attending this latter school and 
received a certificate qualifying him to teach. 
Armed with this, he commenced his career as 
a school teacher, teaching for 18 months in 
district schools at an average salary of $30 a 
month and board. Giving up teaching, Mr. 
Bnsh then secured a position in the stationery 
store of Winter Bros., at Eondout, N. Y., 
now Kingston, starting in by taking charge of 



the newspaper department at $5 a week. Here 
he learned telegraphy and it brought him a 
new position in the office of Frank J. Hecker, 
then superintendent of the Wallkill Valley 
Eailroad, and now one of the general officers 
of the Michigan-Peninsular Car Co. of De- 
troit. Some months later Mr. Hecker gave 
young Bush the position of operator at Sha- 
wangunk, N. Y. While there and in the fall 
of 1872, an attack of measles laid him up for 
eight months; the disease settled in one of his 
knees and he was forced to move about on 
crutches. While in this condition he entered 
the law offices of Lounsbery & DeWitt, of 
Kingston, and after three years' study he was 
admitted to the bar in September, 1876, at 
Saratoga, N. Y. He practiced for two years 
at Kingston and then came to Michigan, locat- 
ing first at Stanton, in 1878, and removing to 
Vernon, Shiawassee county, where he prac- 
ticed his profession until January, 1889, when 
he became Judge of Probate, and removed to 
Corunna. 

Judge Bush is a Republican and has always 
been a firm and consistent member of that 
party. He was village attorney at Vernon 
for many years and for two terms president 
of the village. 

He is an elder in the Eirst Presbyterian 
' Church of Corunna and also a member of the 
school board and board of public works of that 
city. He has been twice married. His first 
wife. Miss Elora McKercher, of Vernon, 
whom he married in 1882, died in 1885. His 
second wife, whom he married in 1887 at Ver- 
non, was a Miss Annie E. Verney. He has 
seven children : Walter M., James V., Eussel 
Alger, Lowell M., Helen E., Oliver N. and 
AVendell H. Bush. 

Judge Bush is associated with the Masonic 
fraternity and is past eminent commander of 
Corunna Commandery, No. 21, K. T. He 
is also a member of the Knights of the Macca- 
bees, a member of the Michigan Club of De- 
troit, and president of the State Association 
of Probate Judges. He is a man of deter- 
mination and strong character, extremely 
popular in his county and well known 
throughout the State. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



19S 



JiYAN, EDWARD. Edward Ryan, of 
Hancock, is one. of the most successful and 
enterprising business men in Houghton 
county, going there without a cent and a lim- 
ited education, yet studying, planning and 
working rntil he built up a large mercantile 
business. He was the founder of the First 
JsTational Bank of Calumet, and one of the 
founders of the Peninsular Electric Light & 
Power Company, of Houghton. 

His life's history is an interesting one. 
Born in Ireland, April 22, 1840, he came to 
this country in 1844 with his parents, who 
located at Wiota, Wisconsin. Here the boy 
was sent to school and secured a little educa- 
tion, but as soon as he was old enough to help 
support the family he went to work, but at- 
tended the district school in the winter. 

In 1854 the family moved to Houghton, 
Michigan, where young Ryan found work in 
the general store of Sheldon & Company. His 
duties consisted of driving a team and hauling 
goods from the wharf to the store, and thence 
to the mining camps around the neighborhood. 
He was bright, active and cheerful, and a hard 
worker. He soon became a general favorite, 
and was taken into the store as clerk. While 
still in the employ of Sheldon & Company, in 
1860, he was nominated and elected sheriff of 
Houghton county. He was elected on the 
Democratic ticket and Avas one of the most 
popular young men in the copper district. 
After declining the re-nomination in 1862 he 
started out in business for himself in a small 
store at Hancock. He had about $1,000 capi- 
tal with which to stock up his place, but he 
worked like a beaver, early and late, stuck to 
his business, and made it prosper, so much so 
that in 1868 he branched out and started an- 
other store at Calumet. 

In 1880 he organized the Lake Superior 
Native Copper Works, smelting and rolling 
sheet copper, and the same year he organized 
the HancxKjk Copper Mining Company, with 
a capital of $100,000, which he raised in the 
east. For many years he operated the Han- 



^^^^KB^^SM 


H 


W^M 




<*5W« "'' 


m 


I 




I 


^^ "^ 




1 




I 


1 


■■'^y 


^H 




^1 


■ 


m 


1 




1 


1 



EDWARD RYAN. 

cock mine, until the low price of the metal 
made the mine a losing venture. 

Edward Ryan was one of the first men to 
promote thu iron mining interests on the Go- 
gebic, and together with Captain Nathan 
Moore he located and operated several valu- 
able iron properties. The Ryan Iron Belt 
and the Atlantic Iron Mines were developed 
under Mr. Ryan. 

In 1860 Mr. Ryan married Alice, daughter 
of Thomas Cuddihy, at Hancock. They have 
nine children, four boys and five girls. Mary 
is the wife of John J. Rigney, of Chicago; 
Alice is attending Notre Dame de St. Mary's 
Academy, with her sisters Catherine and 
Agnes; William is at St. Mary's Academy at 
N^otre Dame, Indiana, and John and Gertrude 
attend school in Hancock. Thomas J* and 
Edward, Jr., are associated with their father. 

Mr. Ryan is a Catholic, a member of St. 
Patrick's Benevolent Society and the A. O. 
H. He is president of the First Natio&ai 
Bank at Calumet, president of the Hanodek 
Copper Mining Company, of Hancodki B$& 
vice-president of the Peninsular Eleetnc U^^ 
& Power Company, of Houghton^ Miolugili; 



194: 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




JOHN H. FEDEWA. 

FEDEWA, JOHN H. John H. Fedewa, 
of St. Johns, attomey-at-law, was bom in the 
township of Dallas, Clinton county, Michi- 
gan, May 8, 1849. His parents, Mr. and 
Mrs. Morris Fedewa, were natives of Ger- 
many, born near the Kiver Khine. After 
their marriage they emigrated to America in 
1842, sailing from Havre to New York-, a 
voyage of fifty-three days. They went direct 
from New York to the township of Dallas, 
near the present village of Westphalia, where 
the subject of this sketch was bom. The par- 
ents of Mr. Fedewa were among the first set- 
tlers, and endured many of the hardships of 
pioneer life. When eleven years old, Mr. 
Fedewa moved with his parents to the tov^Ti- 
ship of Westphalia. He acquired his educa- 
tion in district schools, in the German school 
at Westphalia, and a two years' course in the 
St. Johns high school. After leaving school 
at St. Johns he worked at the carpefnter's 
trade for a time, and taught school one win- 
ter, after which he entered the Law Depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan, and re- 
ceived his diploma in March, 1872. Since 
graduating at the University he has practiced 



his chosen profession. In 1874, at the age 
of 25 yeai*s, he was elected prosecuting-attor- 
ney for Clinton county, which office he has 
held for eight years. 

Mr. Fedewa is well known in county and 
state conventions, having attended nearly 
every state convention of his party since his 
admission to the bar in 1872, and in 1892 
was a delegate to the Democratic National 
Convention at Chicago. He has been a mem- 
ber of the Democratic State Central Commit- 
tee for many years and chairman of the Dem- 
ocratic County Committee of his county for 
a number of terms. Previous to 1896, there 
had been fusion of the Democratic and Green- 
back ranks in the old Sixth Congressional 
District, but in the fall of that year the two 
parties could not agree upon a candidate, and 
each put up a nominee. Mr. Fedewa, among 
other members of the Democratic convention, 
sought to make peace between the two fac- 
tions, believing that the Greenbackers were 
entitled to the nominee, as it was their turn, 
but the larger number of the convention did 
not agree to this and would not submit to it. 
The nominees of both conventions resigned, 
and a joint convention was afterwards held 
with a view of adjusting the difficulties and 
again join forces. Mr. Fedewa was the choice 
of the Democrats as their candidate for Con- 
gress, and the Greenbackers, appreciating his 
honorable treatment of them, consented to 
his nomination, and promised to support him, 
but at the time of the election the past lack of 
harmony broke up the agreement and the 
two parties failed to elect their candidate. 
On November 27, 1876, Mr. Fedewa was 
united in marriage to Lizzie, eldest daughter 
of Mr. and Mrs. M. Petsch. 

Five children have gathered about their 
hearthstone, of whom Mayme M., John M. 
and Anne E. are still with their parents, the 
eldest two, Paula M. and Arthur P., died, the 
latter the 14th, and the former the 15th of 
February, 1883, leaving their bereaved par- 
ents in sore affliction. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



196 



HALL, HON. DE VEKE. The family 
from which Hon. De Vere Hall, of Bay City, 
Michigan, has descenJled was one of those 
that settled in this state very early in its his- 
tory, coming here from Black River County, 
New York, in the '40s and locating in Mon- 
roe County. De Vere Hall was born in 
Bedford, Monroe County, August 22, 1854. 
His father died when Mr. Hall was but two 
years of age, and deprived of paternal aid and 
advice, the boy virtually made his own way 
in the world. His education commenced in 
the little district school near his home and 
continued until the family moved to Holly, 
Oakland County, where in his tenth year he 
had the advantages offered by a graded 
school. With the little assistance given him 
by his mother and by his o^vn efforts he man- 
aged to secure a fair education, working dven 
when a small boy as a farm hand and con- 
tributing the eight dollars a month earned 
in this manner toward the support of the lit- 
tle family. When seventeen years old he was 
given a third grade teacher's certificate and 
from this time forward he followed the voca- 
tion of teacher during the winters and re- 
turned to farming in the summer months. 
He was successful as a teacher and taught 
schools in Genesee, Clinton, Oakland and 
Huron counties, and later was principal of 
the village schools at Goodrich, Gaines, 
Byron and Caseville, Michigan. While in 
the latter place he was appointed a member 
of the county board of school examiners, and 
was elected secretary of that body. Here 
also he commenced the study of the profes- 
sion he now follows, taking up the study of 
kw, and reading in the office of Hon. D. P. 
Markey, ex-speaker of the House of Eepre- 
scntatives. Mr. Hall was admitted to the bar 
before Judge Nixon at Bad Axe, Michigan, 
in 1882. In the spring of the following 
year, he formed a partnership with Mr. 
Markey and the firm of Markey and Hall 
commenced practice at West Branch, Michi- 
gan. This partnership continued successfully 
until September 1, 1891, when Mr. Markey, 




HON. DE VERE HALL. 

having become associated with the Great 
Camp, K. O. T. M., withdrew from the firm. 
Mr. Hall was prosecuting attorney for 
Ogemaw County from 1885 until 1890, and 
on being ele-cted to the State Legislature he 
resigned. He served as a member of the 
House during the sessions of 1891-92. In 
1894 he was appointed alderman in the Ninth 
Ward at Bay City, serving the balance of the 
term and being elected to the same oflice in 
1895. He resigned Feb. 2, 1896. At pres- 
ent Mr. Hall is great lieutenant commander 
of the Michigan Camp, K. O. T. M. He is 
also a Mason, Templar, a member of the I. 
O. O. F., Modern Woodmen of the World, 
Knights and Ladies of Honor. Mr. Hall 
became associated with Mr. James E. Brock- 
way in the law business in September, 1889, 
and the firm of Hall and Brockway is one of 
the most prosperous in Bay City. 

Mr. Hall was leading counsel for Bay 
County in the great state case of Michigan 
vs. County of Bay, and also for tite Joseph 
P. Comstock estate in the famous case involv- 
ing over a million dollars, Joseph B^ 0<?m* 
stock estate against Comstock Btos., of Al- 
pena. Mr. Hall married Miss Atigii«tii 0i 
Brown, of Alpena. He has six ehildreii. 



196 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




CORVIS MINER BARRE. 

BAERE, COEVIS MINEE. Corvis 
Miner Barre, of Hillsdale, Mich., is of Ger- 
man descent, both on his mother's and his 
father's side of the house. His grandfather 
came from Germany to this country many 
years ago, and his father located in Western 
Reserve, Ohio, in 1837. It was in Eipley 
township, Huron county, of that state, that' 
C. M. Barre was born November 29, 1848. 

At the proper age he was sent to the dis- 
trict school, where he remained until he was 
15 years old, when he received a teacher's 
certificate, and armed with this made his first 
start in the world, teaching a district school 
at Carson, O., at $40 per month. During his 
school days he had worked at house painting, 
earning enough to support himself while at- 
tending school. 

On May 2, 1864, Mr. Barre enlisted in 
Company C, 166th Ohio Infantry, and was 
mustered into the U. S. service as a private 
soldier. His parents were greatly alarmed 
and followed him to Washington in an effort 
to persuade him to leave the service, but the 
young man was firm, and although his parents 
had secured a permit from Washington, the 
captain of his regiment said that young Barre 



could stay if he wanted to. He was a tall boy 
for his age, and easily passed for 18 or 20. 
The 166th was assigned to relieve the troops 
in the forts around Washington and did not 
see any active service. Young Barre re- 
mained with his regiment until the close of 
the w^ar, and then returned to Carson, O. He 
resumed his old occupation of teaching school 
during the winter months and in summer kept 
his funds in shape by house painting. He 
found time to attend the I^^ormal School at 
Milan, O., for three terms, and in 18Y0 he 
came to Michigan and engaged in a genieral 
produce business at Beading for eight years, 
meeting with great success. In 1878 he was 
elected county clerk of Hillsdale county and 
serv^ed as such for six years. While in this 
office in 1882 he was tendered and accepted 
the position as cashier in the Second National 
Bank of Hillsdale, and remained with the 
bank until it closed and surrendered its char- 
ter. 

During his term as county clerk he com- 
menced the reading of law, and in 1885, be- 
fore Judge Andrew Howell, he was admitted 
to the bar. When the bank closed Mr. Barre 
became financial agent and confidential secre- 
tary to Hon. Charles T. Mitchell, of Hills- 
dale, and remained in that capacity until 
1892. In the summer of 1892 he was ap- 
pointed consul-general to Chili by President 
Harrison as successor to Col. McCreery, of 
Flint, and after serving as such for thirteen 
months Avas removed by President Cleveland 
in 1893. On his return to Hillsdale he be- 
came associated with Col. E. J. March in the 
law business and later Avas associated with F. 
A. Lyon until Mr. Lyon was elected state 
senator. The firm then became Sampson &: 
Barre. 

Mr. Barre owns several farms adjoining 
Hillsdale and is an extensive breeder of sheep. 
He married in 1882 Miss Kate E., daughter 
of Hon. Charles T. Mitchell. She died in 
IS 8 5. In 1892 Mr. Barre married his pres- 
ent wife, who was Mrs. Carrie A. Woltman, 
daughter of W. B. Boutwell, of Hillsdale. 

Mr. Barre still continues in a lucrative 
practice of law in Hillsdale. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



OER, DR. G . W. Nearly three thousand 
people are under the charge of Dr. G. W. 
Orr, Lake Linden, Michigan, and this state is 
indebted to his efforts for the beautiful Lake 
Superior General Hospital, which he built in 
1805, at Lake Linden and where he now acts 
as resident physician and surgeon, with a 
large and experienced corps of physicians and 
nurses. 

Dr. Orr's father's father came from the 
Xorth of Ireland in 1770 and located in Wyo- 
ming Valley, Pennsylvania, where his father 
was born. His mother was a descendant of 
Wm. Sweetland, who arrived from England 
to this country and resided in Salem, New 
London county, Connecticut, in 1703. Luke 
Sweetland, his mother's grandfather, was, 
during the Massacre of Wyoming, captured 
by the Indians and was prisoner with them 
for fourteen months. 

G. W. Orr was bom February 18, 1847, 
at Walled Lake, Michigan, where he attended 
the district school in company with Joseph B. 
Moore, now judge of the Supreme bench. 
Working on the farm summers and attending 
school winters until 15 years of age, when 
he was sent to Wyoming Seminary, at Kings- 
ton, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 
the spring of 1864. He then returned to this 
state and attended a select school at Com- 
merce, Oakland county, working during the 
summer months on the farm. In the fall of 
1870 he entered the University of Michigan 
and graduated in Medicine in 1877. He then 
opened an office in Pontiac, where he prac- 
ticed for two years, holding the office of city 
physician for that city during that time. In 
the summer of 1879 he received the appoint- 
ment of physician and surgeon for the Cen- 




GEORaE WILLIAM ORR, M. D. 

tral Mining Co., Lake Superior. He remained 
with that company until June, 1885. He 
then moved to Lake Linden and established 
an independent practice. In 1889 he received 
the appointment of physician and surgeon for 
the Tamarack and Osceola Mills. In 1895 
he built the Lake Superior General Hospital 
and established the Lake Superior Training 
School for Nurses. 

Dr. Orr married, in 1876, Miss Sarah Park, 
daughter of John H. Park, Pontiac, Michi- 
gan. They have two children, Hazel, 17, 
and Kuth, 8. 

Dr. Orr is supervisor of Schoolcraft town- 
ship and has been for the pa^t ^ght years. 
He is a Ma&on, a K. T. and a member of the 
Mystic Shrine, Moslem Temple, Detroit. 

His father, Charles M. Orr, was an early 
settler of Michigan, arriving at Walled Lake^ 
Oakland county, about 1835. 



i«^^ 



MEN or PKOGKESS. 




WALTER HULME SAWYER, M. D. 

SAWYEK, M. D., WALTEK HTJLME. 
Walter Hulme Sawyer, M. D., a practicing 
physician and surgeon of Hillsdale, Michigan, 
is a native ot Bellvue, Ohio, near which place 
he was born August 10, 1861. George Saw- 
yer, his father, was a prosperous farmer near 
Bellvue and in 1872 brought his family to 
Michigan and located on a farm at Eaton 
Rapids, this state. The elder Sawyer invested 
all his savings in Toledo, Ohio, real estate, 
and the panic of 1873 causing a depreciation 
in values, he was unable to discharge his loans 
and was closed out without a cent. 

Young Sawyer attended the public schools 
of Eaton Eapids from 11 to 15 years of age, 
when the father bought a small farm at Grass 
I^ake, Michigan. Here the boy worked as a 
fann hand, attended the public schools, and 



graduated from the high school in 1881. He 
entered the University of Michigan's medical 
department in the fall of 1881, graduating 

- from there as an M. D. in June, 1884. He 
worked during vacations at farming. His 
father, being as ambitious to see his boy attain 
a good position as the boy was to obtain one, 
gave him all the money he could spare toward 
assisting him through the University, and the 
young man succeeded in obtaining a loan of 
$1,000 from a relative in order to complete 
his course. 

He met with success almost from the start 
of his practice. The year following his grad- 
uatioTi he v as house physician at the hospital 
at Ann Arbor, and after saving a little money 
he determined to start in for himself. In 
Jiily, 1885, he went to Hillsdale, Avhere he 
iiow^ resides, and started his practice in that 
city. 

Dr. Sawyer married Miss Harriet B. 
Mitchell, daughter of Hon. Charles T. 
Mitchell, of Hillsdale, June 10, 1888. He 
has one child, Thomas Mitchell Sawyer. Dr. 
Sawyer is a member of the Republican State 

' Central Committee, of the Hillsdale School 
Board, and a trustee of Hillsdale College. 

He belongs to the American Medical As- 
sociation, the Michigan State Medical Asso- 
ciation, Tri-State Medical Society, and is cor- 
responding member of the Detroit Academy 
of Medicine. In the business world he is a 
director in the Omega Portland Cement Co., 
Jonesville, Michigan; in the Oak Grove Sani- 
tarium, Flint, Michigan, and in the Buchanan 
Screen Works, Hillsdale, of which latter com- 
pany he was formerly president. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



199 



PRINCE, HON. WILLIAM IRA. Wil- 
liam Ira Prince, of Bessemer, Michigan, 
cashier of the First National Bank of that 
city, is only 33 years of age, yet he is con- 
sidered one of the most prominent and lead- 
ing Republicans of Gogebic County. He 
has held many offices in the gift of that party, 
and has established for himself an excellent 
record for political and commercial integrity. 

He was born in Camden, Ohio, October 11, 
1867. His father, George C. Prince, was 
engaged in the real estate, loan and insur- 
' ance business in that vicinity and his mother 
was formerly Miss Lucy A. Hill, of the Hill 
family from Connecticut. 

Young Prince commenced his education 
when 7 years of age in the district schools 
near Camden,, and when he reached his 16th 
year the family removed to Oberlin, Ohio, 
where the boy took a two years' preparatory 
course at Oberlin College. He paid for his 
schooling by working as a farm hand for $12 
a month during vacations, and so made 
enough money to enable him to enter the 
Oberlin Business College, where he took a 
two years' course. 

After leaving college he was given a posi- 
tion in the postoffice at Oberlin as clerk and 
as such he remained until July, 1889. He 
resigned in that year to accept a position in 
which he saw chances of futitre advance- 
ment, that of collector and clerk in the Citi- 
zens' National Bank of Oberlin. His salary 
to commence with was only $200 a year. 
Here he remained until 1890, and in Febru- 
ary of that year he resigned his position to 
accept that of bookkeeper with the First Na- 
tional Bank of Escanaba, Michigan. On the 
first of January, .1892, Mr. Prince was ten- 
dered the position of cashier of the First Na- 
tional Bank of Bessemer, and for several 
years enjoyed the distinction of being the 




HON. WILLIAM IRA PRINCE. 

youngest cashier and manager of any national 
bank in the United States. 

He has taken interest in other enterprises, 
and is one of the directors of the Gogebic 
Powder Company, which manufactures nearly 
all the high explosives and dynamite used by 
the mines in the Gogebic range. He is also 
a director of the Brotherton Iron Mining Co. 

In his career in the politics of his county, 
Mr. Prince has enjoyed the confidence of his 
neighbors, and has held the best offices that 
could be given to a young man. He was 
elected ihayor of the city of Bessemer on the 
Kepublican ticket in 1897, re-elected in 1898 
and 1899. In 1893 he was made City 
Treasurer, and at present he is a member of 
the county board of school examiners, and 
chairman of the Republican representative 
committee of Gogebic District. He was also 
chairman of the Republican county commit- 
tee in 1894-95. Mr. Price married, Oetoter 
7, 1897, Miss Mary A. Baldwin, daughter of 
Milton R. Baldwin, at Waupaca, Wiscai^ypili, 
and George Baldwin Prince has been tihe re?- 
suit of that union. 



200 



MEN or PKOGKESS. 




FRANCIS DEVEREUX CLARKE. 

CLARKE, FRANCIS DEVEREUX. 
Francis Devereux Clarke has devoted all his 
life to the instruction of those unfortunates 
whom nature has deprived of two of the most 
valued senses, speech and hearing. Francis 
Clarke was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, 
January 31, 1848. When a boy he attended 
the primary schools of that city and whai 
nine years of age was sent to the Gravis 
School at Bellemont, North Carolina, where 
he prepared for Davidson College, which he 
entered shortly after. At the age of four- 
teen he enlisted as a midshipman in the Con- 
federate navy and was assigned to the Fred- 
ericksburg. He participated in the City 
Point engagement in 1864, where he was 
wounded, and the wound kept him in the hos- 
pital until the close of the war. 

The following four years he was connected 
with his brother in the grocery business, and 
lat^r in the lumbering interests. When nine- 
teen years of age young Clarke was tendered 
the position of supercargo on a vessel plying 
between New York and Hong Kong, and 
bidding his parents and friends f arewellr he 
left for New York, expecting to be in the 



Indian trade for many years. When he 
reached New York he found a change had 
been made in the command of the steamship 
he was assigned to, and he was forced to seek 
another position. He was proud and sensi- 
tive and did not inform his parents or friends 
of his ill-luck and for two weeks he lived on 
one meal a day, and his capital was reduced 
to fifteen cents when he secured a position. 
He had been visiting an employee, a friend of 
his, at the New York School for the Deaf 
and while riding back to the station he was 
tendered a position as teacher. He accepted 
and went to work immediately, determined 
to make a success of that profession. By 
committing to memory at night the lessons 
he was to teach the next day and attending 
strictly to his work he made a success the first 
week. He continued with the New York 
school seventeen years, and during the in- 
. terim entered the Literary Department of 
Columbia College, from which he graduated 
in 1873. He then took a course in civil en- 
gineering at the University of the State of 
New York and graduated as a C. E. in 1875. 
In 1885 he was tendered and accepted the 
position of superintendent of the Arkansas 
Deaf Mute Institute at Little Rock, and he 
resigned December 15, 1892, to accept the 
superintendency of the Michigan School for 
the Deaf at Flint, where he still remains. 

Mr. Clarke married Miss Celia Laura Ran- 
son, a niece of ex-Governor Epaphroditus 
Ransom at Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1872. 

Mr. Clarke's father was William John 
Clarke, a well-knowoi attorney of Raleigh, 
and came from the old Clarke family of Vir- 
ginia. His mother was Mary Bayard Dever- 
eux, descended from the old Southern family 
of that name. Mr. Clarke is a member of the 
National Teachers' Association of the United 
States and also of the National Association 
Teachers of the Deaf. The institution over 
which Mr. Clarke is superintendent is a flour- 
ishing one, and publishes the Michigan 
Mirror/ a weekly devoted to the interests of 
the deaf and dumb, having a circulation of 
1,200. 



mSTORICAL SKETCHES. 



201 



TH0MPS0:N^, JAMES EOEEET. Su- 
perintendent James Kobert Thompson, of the 
iS'ewport Mining Company, Ironwood, Mich- 
igan, is the son of James Thompson, who was 
a farmer of Racine county, Wisconsin, and 
Miranda 11, Fairbanks, of the Massachusetts 
family of that name. The Thompson family 
came originally from Scotland. 

James R. Thompson was born at Burling- 
ton, Wisconsin, June 19, 1865, just two 
months after the death of his father, who was 
a soldier during the Civil War and died in a 
hospital at ISTew Orleans, Louisiana, April 15, 
1865. When the boy was 12 years of age 
the mother moved to Racine, Wisconsin, 
where he attended the pnblic schools of that 
city, and later the Racine High School, from 
which he graduated in 1882. During his 
studies in the High School the boy worked 
on his holidays, and also in the summer time, 
turning the money in toward paying his ex- 
penses through school. In the fall of 1882 
he entered the University of Wisconsin at 
Madison, taking up the studies of civil en- 
gineering and later of mining and metallurgy. 
'For a year he was compelled to absent him- 
self from college on account of a lack of 
funds, but he returned to college and gradu- 
ated in the class of 1887. His college ex- 
penses were partly earned one year by taking 
the State census, and another year by turn- 
ing book agent and selling a publication in 
the farming district around Madison. He 
also earned money during the school year by 
doing draughting for the U. S. Geological 
Survey. At the enci of the winter term, 1887, 
he left college and Accepted a position as min- 
ing engineer and chemist at the Jackson Iron 
Mines, under Capt. Samuel Mitchell, at Ne- 
gaunee. He received a salary of $1,000 a 
year. The college faculty, however, granted 
him the degree of Bachelor of Metallurgical 
Engineering at the regular commencement ex- 
ercises in June, 1887, and gave him an addi- 
tional degree of B. S. in June, 1888, in recog- 
nition of extra w^rk done during his college 
course. 

After one year at the Jackson mine he left 




JAMES ROBERT THOMPSON. 

to accept a similar position Avith the Iron Cliff 
Company at N^egnuiiee, Michigan, and he re- 
mained with this latter company until 1890, 
when it was absorbed by the Cleveland Cliffs 
(Jompany, and in October of that year he ac- 
cepted the position of mining engineer with 
the Lake Superior Mining Company, at Ish- 
peming. He stayed with this company for 
five years, successfully filling the position he 
had taken, and in 1895 he resigned to accept 
the superintendency of the Newport Mining 
Company's plant at Ironwood, Michigan* 

In 1888 the University of Wisconsin 
granted to Mr. Thompson the degree of M. S. 
for his investigations and report on the struc- 
tural relations of the ore deposits of Marquette 
county, Michigan. 

Mr. Thompson is the general manager of 
the Dunn Iron Mining Company, which 
operates the Palms Iron Mine at Besi^mer^ 
Michigan, and the Dunn Iron Mines at 
Crystall Falls, Michigan. . 

He married, in 1893, Miss Helen H* Pearly 
daughter of Eleazor Pearl, a oontxmto^ fk% 
Farmington, New Hamp^ire. He i» a«p^ 
ber of the F. & A. M. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




STEPHEN BETTS WHITING. 

WHITING, STEPHEN BETTS. The 
present general manager of the immense 
plant and operations of the Calumet & Hecla 
Mining Conjpany at Oalumet is Stephen Betts 
Whiting, a descendant of Hon. Wm. Whit- 
ing, one cf the founders of the colony of Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, in 1636. Mr. Whiting 
was born at Reading Ridge, Connecticut, Jan- 
uary 22, 1834. There he attended the dis- 
trict 9choC)l from the time he was old enough 
to do so until he reached the age of eight, and 
then he was sent to the public school at New 
Haven, Connecticut, and prepared to enter 
Yale College. Financial troubles in the fam- 
ily forced him to resign all ideas of the higher 
education to be obtained at college, and put 
him in a position where he had to earn his 
own living. He always fancied the mechani- 
cal trade, and when only 14 years old built 
a little working model of a steam engine, 
which is still one of his most valued posses- 
sions and runs as smoothly today as it did 52 
years ago. He was apprenticed to serve six 
yeai^ learning the trade of a machinist, com- 
mencing at $25 a year and his board, but after 



two and a half years the firm dissolved and 
young Whiting started out as a journeyman 
machinist. He worked in different shops 
" in 'New Haven for about two years, and then 
returning to the place where he had learned 
his trade, in company with a fellow workman, 
opened the old shop and started in business 
for himself. 

Three years later Mr. Whiting went to 
IJrbana, Ohio, and took charge of Gwynnes, 
Ellis & Co.'s shops, building engines and saw- 
mill machinery, and the next five years he 
was superintendent of the new plant of 
Steigelman & Miller, at Alton, Illinois. He 
then accepted the position as superintendent 
of Kaighus Point Iron Works, near Philadel- 
phia, Pennsylvania, and was superintendent 
afterwards when the plant passed into the 
hands of a receiver. 

In 1863' Mr. Whiting joined with C. AVil- 
cox and bought the Kaighus Point Iron 
Works, operating the plant successfully until 
1866, when Mr. Wilcox died and Mr. Whiting 
sold out. This firm built the monitor Koka 
for the United States government, and the big 
Chestnut street bridge in Philadelphia. After 
a short trip to the mountains for the benefit 
of his health, he returned to harness again as 
superintendent of the Colliery Iron Works at 
Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and later resigned 
to accept the position of mechanical engineer 
for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron 
Company, with headquarters at Pottsville. He 
was promoted to chief engineer and later be- 
came general manager. In 1888 he resigned 
to accept his present position. 

In 1858 he married Miss Kate Burr 
Draper, daughter of Albert Draper, a manu- 
facturing jeweler of Attleboro, Massachusetts. 
He has five children, namely, Charles W., 
Walter S., Albfert D., Howard E. and S. 
Edgar. ^ Charles is a mechanical engineer, 
Walter is a mining engineer, Albert a physi- 
cian and surgeon, Howard the superintendent 
of parks at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and S. 
Edgar an instructor in the electrical depart- 
ment of Harvard College. 



HTSTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



203 



HUMPHKEY, CHAS. MAEK. Much 
eastern capital has been brought into Michi- 
gan, and many enterprises furthered by its 
means through the efforts of some of the 
younger men of this state, and Charles Mark 
Humphrey, of Ironwood, Michigan, was the 
main factor in building the electric railroad 
that now is known as the Holland & Lake 
Michigan Railroad Company. 

Charles M. Humphrey was bom at Elyria, 
Ohio, July 17, 1865. Two years after this 
event his family moved to Allegan, Allegan 
County, Michigan, where from the time he 
was old enough to go to school up to 1881 he 
attended the public school of that city. His 
father, James B. Humphrey, was an attor- 
ney-at-law, and in 1881 he moved his family 
to Lansing, Michigan, where the son at- 
tended the public schools until the fall of 
1883, when he entered the Michigan Agri- 
cultural College at Lansing, which he left 
the following year to commence his law 
studies at the University of Michigan. 

He graduated from the law department in 
J 886, and then entered the law firm of Padg- 
liam & Padgham at Allegan, where he re- 
mained until 1887 when he accepted the 
position as deputy clerk of the Supreme 
Court under Charles Hopkins. In 1889 the 
young attorney returned to Allegan and en- 
tered into partnership with Judge Phillip 
Padgham under the firm name of Padgham 
& Humphrey, and he continued the practice 
of law until January 1, 1891, when he was 
made attorney and counselor for the Norrie 
Mine, a position he still holds, and which re- 
sulted in his removal to Ironwood, Michigan, 
where he now resides. In 1897 Mr. Hum- 
phrey became interested in consolidating the 
two street railway systems at Hurley, Wiscon- 
sin, and Ironwood, Michigan, and consulted 
with some of his friends in Lower Michigan 
regarding the building of an electric road from 
Holland, Michigan, to Lake Michigan, where 
the summer hotels are located at Macatawa 
Park. Young Humphrey brought his scheme 
before the city council of Holland and induced 
it to grant a franchise for th§^ proposed road. 




CHARLES MARK HUMPHREY.. 

It was not until he secured this franchise 
that he realized the magnitude of the under- 
taking on the part of a young man without 
capital. Nevertheless he secured the right of 
way for his road and then went to Philadel- 
phia, where he consulted with the capitalists 
of that city and soon induced them to back 
the enterprise. Work on the road was com- 
menced at once, and on July 4, 1898, seven 
miles of electric road from Holland to Lake 
Michigan were opened, and also a branch of 
ten miles to Saugatuck, which opened the 
best fruit country of western Allegan county. 
The company intends to extend the line fur- 
ther south into the fruit country. Mr. Hum- 
phrey was made president of the company 
when it organized. Mr. Humphrey en- 
joys a good law practice as a member of the 
firm of Humphrey & Cooper, Ironwood and 
Bessemer, Michigan. He is secretary and 
treasurer of the Northwestern Mining Gotikr 
pany of Clear Creek District, Colorado^ and 
a director in the Bessemer Ore Company, 
operating the Mikado mine at Wafe^eH^ 
Michigaii. He was city attorney of Ircm* 
wood, 1893-96-97, and is a membar of-^ 
Peninsular Club of Grand Bapidi, aitijlv^^^ 
Chicago Athletic Association, 



MEN OF PEOGRESS. 




HON. ERWIN EVELETH. 

EVELETH, HON. ERWIN. Erwin Eve- 
leth, a capitalist of Corunna, Michigan, where 
he is also engaged in the business of estimat 
ing hmiber and land-looking, is a native of 
New York- state, having been born November 
6, 1842, in Darien, Genesee county. His 
father, Charles Eveleth, is of Welsh descent, 
coming from a family which located in Ver* 
mont in the early history of that state. The 
elder Eveleth moved to Alexander, New 
York, and shortly afterwards, in 1849, to 
Grand Blanc, Michigan. When the family 
came to this state, the subject of this sketch 
was seven years of age. He was sent to the 
district schools near his new home until he 
reached his fifteenth yeai*, after which he at- 
tended the public schools at Flushing, Michi- 
gan, and received the benefit of two winter 
terms at the public school in Saginaw. While 
studying at Flushing, young Eveleth worked 
on the farm during the summer months, but 
at Saginaw he clerked in a store in order to 
see himself through school. Upon leaving 
school he secured employment in the ware- 
house of Gooding & Hawkins, at a salary of 
$50 a month, out of which he managed to 



save enough money to pay his way through 
the Business College at Detroit during the 
winter of 1861 and 1862. He returned to 
his old position with the Saginaw firm, but 
the following fall he became associated with 
John D. Jones, a land-looker, and learned 
this vocation. For the next three years he 
worked in tlie woods adjacent to the Saginaw 
river. 

In the year 1865 Mr. Eveleth became asso- 
ciated with the firm of Robinson & Flynn, of 
Detroit, Michigan, and looked after their 
large interests in the state, estimating timber 
and timber lands, a vocation he has followed 
since that time, and at which he has gained a 
reputation for his great skill and reliability. 
Mr. Eveleth has looked lands in almost every 
pine-bearing county in the state of Michigan. 
His reputation as a land-looker has extended 
outside of this state, and he has covered the 
territory from Rainy Lake to the Gulf of 
Mexico and all through Ontario and the 
Northwest. Much of his time in the past few 
years has been given as an expert estimator of 
timber lands, and his services as such are 
greatly in demand in all parts of the United 
States and Canada. 

Mr. Eveleth moved to Corunna in 1871. 
In politics he is a Republican. He was elected 
on the Republican ticket to the oflfice of 
mayor of Corunna in 1895-1896 and has been 
a member of the school board for the past 
ten years, during eight of which he was presi- 
dent of that body. He has been on the coun- 
cil of Corunna for the past four years. 

Mr. Eveleth married, in 1866, Miss Jennie, 
daughter of John Black, of Sanilac, Michi- 
gan. He has nine children. He is a mem- 
ber of Corunna Lodge, F. & A. M. ; Corunna 
Chapter, R. A. M.; Corunna Chapter, R. S. 
M.; Corunna Commandery, K. T., No. 21, 
and the K. O. T. M. 

In 1882 Mr. Eveleth located a tract of 
land on Ma&aba range, the iron district of 
Minnesota, and discovered the famous Adams 
Iron Mine, now operated by the Rockefeller 
interests, and a good producer. The village ^ 
of Eveleth, St. Louis county, Minnesota, is 
named in honor of Mr. Eveleth. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



206 



SOPER, HON. JULIUS MASON. Hon. 
Julius Mason Soper, representative from the 
First District of Eaton county, was born on a 
farm in Onandaga county, New York state, 
February 24, 1858. Both of his parents were 
natives of New York state, his father having 
been born in Shenango county and his mother 
in Onandaga. His parents came to Michigan 
in 1865 and located on a farm near Delta, and 
as a boy Julius M. Soper helped his father in 
the work of clearing up the farm from the 
forest land, removing the stumps, ploughing 
among those that could not be removed in time 
for planting, digging ditches and all sorts of 
labor that the clearing up of new farm land 
requires. He attended school when he could 
find time to spare from these duties until he 
was 20 years of age, acquiring his education 
in the common schools of this state, and devot- 
ing his evenings to study in order to prepare 
himself for a good position in life. He was a 
quiet boy and of a naturally studious disposi- 
tion. He had planned to advance his educa- 
tion by a course at a business college, but as 
he had two sisters of whom his father was very 
fond he worked in order that they might ob- 
tain education enough to enable them to 
teach school. Both sisters afterwards became 
teachers and eventually married, one being 
now Mrs. C. S. Branch and living in Minne- 
apolis, Minnesota, and the other being Mrs. 
Charles Slocum, of Delta. 

He postponed his business college course 
from day to day, and finally gave up the hope 
of ever obtaining it. 

He has been a steady, hard working man all 
his life, and is still engaged in farming in 
Delta township, Eaton county, on the very 
farm that he helped his father to clear up 
when he was a boy. 

His farm is noted for its fine herd of 
blooded stock, and he supplies milk to the 
Lansing Condensed Milk factory from his own 
dairy. (This dairy is a model of sanitary 
equipment, being provided with all modern 
appliances for the proper care of the lacteal 
iluid.) 

Mr. Soper is a member of the Grange of 




HON. JULIUS MASON SOPER. 

Delta and belongs to the Lodge of Grand 
Ledge, F. and A. M. He is an attendant of 
the Methodist Episcopal church at Delta. 

Farming has always been his sole occupa- 
tion and although an active Republican he had 
never been a candidate for any office until 
nominated by his party to the legislature of. 
1899-1900. He was elected by a vote of 
2,179 to 1,738 for Herbert Babcock, Demo- 
cratic-Union Silver candidate, a majority of 
441. He made a clean record during the ses- 
sion of 1899, winning the respect of both sides 
of the house. He has been successful in his 
efforts to establish the first rural free mail 
route out of the city of Lansing. 

Mr. Soper married Miss Mary Hamilton, a 
daughter of A. J. Hamilton, at Delta,' Michi- 
gan, November 21, 1883. 

He has been a member of the school board 
of Delta township for seventeen years and a 
census oflicer for the township in 1894, BuJS 
ing his terra on the school board he has hem 
instrumental in advancing the methods ol 
education to an up-to-date system. H^^ |i it 
man of quiet ways and possesses ini^y 
throughout his county. 



MBIT OF PROGRESS. 




WARREN J. WILLITS. 

WILLITS, WARREN J. Warren J. 
WilHts, of Three Rivers, Michigan, was born 
in Hillsdale County, this State, Angiist 19, 
1853. The Willits family was one of the 
very early settlers in Hillsdale County, com- 
ing there in 1835 from New York, and Baron 
P. Willits, uncle of the subject of this sketch, 
was a member of the Michigan Legislature in 
the early days of the State, and also of the ter- 
ritorial convention. The family is of good old 
Quaker stock, the grandfather, Jonathan Wil- 
lits, being a New Jersey Quaker. Warren J. 
Willits attended, when a boy, the district 
school near his home, and the first work that 
brought him any remuneration was employ- 
ment at four dollars per month in a flour and 
feed store. Later he went to work in the post- 
office at an increased salary of eight dollars a 
month and boarded with his parents. He 
studied bookkeeping and gradually became 
skilled as such, securing a position with the 
Michigan Pump Company in that capacity 
and remaining with the company for four 
years, during which time he was advanced 
until he received a moderately good salary. 

In 1876 he formed a partnership with his 
father, under the Mn name of J. Willits & 



Son, for the manufacture and sale of wooden 
pumps, and later on his father sold out and 
Mr. R. H. Webb, his father-in-law, came into 
the company, and the concern was known as 
Webb & Willits. 

They had in their employ a gentleman by 
the name of George S. Sheffield, who invented 
what is now known as the railroad velocipede, 
and in 1879 the firm of Geo. S. Sheffield Co. 
was organized with Geo. S. Sheffield and Mr. 
Willits as co-partners for the purpose of manu- 
facturing this light car. This three-wheel 
car was the only article manufactured by the 
firm for a few years, but ultimately the com- 
pany branched out into the manufacture of 
the ordinary four-wheeled hand cars and other 
railroad lines, and later on, in the year 1884, 
the Sheffield Car Company was organized, 
with Mr. Willits as president, and cars for 
mining and plantation purposes were added to 
the lines till now they have a large factory 
employing upwards of two hundred men, and 
ship their products to all parts of the world, 
representing an investment of over two hun- 
dred thousand dollars. 

Mr. Willits has held several political offices. 
He was township clerk of the Township of 
Lockport in 1877-78; member several terms 
of the school board; the city council and city 
water board and state senator during the ses- 
sion of 1887-88. 

He married Miss Addie E. Webb, daughter 
of Richard H. Webb, of Three Rivers, Michi- 
gan, in that city, in 1876, and has two chil- 
dren, Webb J. Willits, his son, aged 17, who 
is now at school, and Eleanor, Mr. Willits^ 
only daughter is the wife of Percy E. Wagar, 
M. D., of Three Rivers. 

Mr. Willits is the president of the Three 
Rivers Light & Power Company, of Three 
Rivers; president of the First State Savings 
Bank; the Cemetery Association; vice-presi- 
dent of the Michigan Wood Pulp Company, 
of Niles, Michigan, and is largely interested in 
the Three Rivers Improvement Company. 

Mr. Willits is looked upon in Three Rivers 
as a busy, progressive man who has devoted 
much time to the improvement of the city. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



207 



FIFIELD, HENRY OTIS. Henry Otis 
Fifield, owner and publisher of the Herajd at 
Menominee, Michigan, a tri-weekly and 
weekly publication with a large circulation 
throughout the county, is the son of Samuel 
S. Fifield, a former merchant of Corinna, 
Maine. His mother was formerly Miss Na- 
omi Pease. Henry Otis Fifield was bom at 
Corinna, Maine, August 7, 1841, and when 
he was two years of age the family moved 
to Bangor, in the same state, and remained 
there until 1853, giving the boy an opportu- 
nity of spending a few years in the public 
schools of that city. In 1853 the elder Fifield 
concluded that he would move to Kansas, and 
started to do so, when the insurrection of 
John Brown and his sturdy sons created 
such an unsettled feeling in that state, that 
the Kansas idea was given up and the family 
M'ent instead to the town of Prescott, Wiscon- 
sin. Here young Fifield attended school until 
1858, when he commenced to work as printer's 
''devil" in the office of the Prescott Transcript 
at a salary of $50 a year and board. 

In the spring of 1861, young Fifield en- 
listed as a private in Co. O, First Minnesota 
Infantry, which was assigned to the First 
Brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, and 
latterly v/as under command of Gen. Han- 
cock. The regiment participated in the first 
battle of Bull Kun and served through Balls 
Bluff, Winchester, Yorktown, Fair Oaks, the 
''Seven Days' Eetreat,'' Antietam, Gettys- 
burg, Bristow Station and the battle of Mine 
Run. The regiment was almost annihilated 
at Gettysburg, there being only one hundred 
and twenty-five men left after the battle was 
over. The regiment was mustered out in 
1864, on the 5th of May. 

Young Fifield then returned home and 
after being employed at typesetting for a 
while on the St. Paul Press, joined his 
brother in the newspaper btrsiness at Osceola 
Mills, Wisconsin. The paper was called the 
Polk County Press. 

The following year he turned his ©flEorts to 




HENRY OTIS FIFIELD. 

sign writing and house painting, but in 1869 
together with his brother started the Weekly 
Press at Bayfield, Wisconsin, and in the 
spring of 1872 moved the plant to Ashland, 
Wisconsin. This was the first paper ever 
printed in that place, and H. O. Fifield sold 
out his interest in 1874. Mr. Fifield then 
worked on several papers in Stillwater, Min- 
neapolis, Osceola Mills and elsewhere, and 
during the session of 1877-78 of the Wiscon- 
sin Legislature, was proofreader and clerk in 
the Legislature. In March, 1879, Mr. Fi- 
field came to Michigan ^nd commenced work 
on the Menominee Herald, and during the 
year 1880 he purchased that publication. 

Mr. Fifield married Miss Emma Loraine 
Walker at Osceola Mills, W^isconsin, Septem- 
ber 21, 1866. He is a Republican and his 
paper, is the oflScial organ of Menominee 
county. He has been a delegate to maay 
Republican conventions in this state stiiee 
1889. He is a Mason, Knights Templar, and 
a Shriner. Besides this, he belongs to tke Ka^ 
tional Union, the Grand Army of tlie B^lipfl^ 
lie, the Ancient Order, of IJxut'^ ^^i^^k^^M^ 
and the Knights of Teatted Maoeabe^ 



mm OF PEOGRESS. 




HON. RUSSEL R. PEALER. 

PEALER, HON. RUSSEL R. Russel R. 
Pealer was born January 1, 1842, in Green- 
wood, Columbia county, Pennsylvania, and 
was brought up in that county on his father's 
farm. He was educated in the district and 
Normal schools of his native state and taught 
school to defray the expenses of his education. 
He early determined upon the law as his pro- 
fession, but first studied surveying and prac- 
ticed that, to pay in part the expenses of his 
law course. Mr. Pealer was a volunteer in 
the Civil War, enlisted September 9, 1862, 
in the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, when 
he was scarcely 20 years of age, as a boy pri- 
vate. He was soon advanced from the rankn 
and made a non-commissioned officer and later 
promoted sergeant-major of his regiment, ^^for 
meritorious conduct.^' He was commissioned 
second lieutenant and then first lieutenant of 
his company and was recommended for cap- 
tain just as the war closed. He was severely 
wounded in the battle of Hatcher's Run, Vir- 
ginia. He was engaged in some of the fiercest 
battles of the war, participating in the famous 
battles of Ohancellorsyille, Gettysburg, the 
Wilderness, Cold Harbor and at Petersburg, 
and w^as in thirty-fi^ve engagements in all. 



Mr. Pealer is prominently identified with 
the ^ Grand Arijiy of the Republic, and has 
been commander of the Ed. M. Pnitzman 
Post, No, 72; judge-advocate of the depart- 
ment, and served on different committees, 
among others he was on the Legislative Com- 
mittee, which secured the appropriation for 
the Woman's Annex to the Soldiers' Home. 
He assisted in the passage of the Soldiers' Re- 
lief Bill. He is now the Department Com- 
mander, G. A. R., of this state. His services 
were promptly tendered to the governor on 
the breaking out of the war with Spain, when 
he offered to assist in raising a cavalry regi- 
ment. 

He Avas admitted to the bar in 1867 and 
located in Three Rivers, Michigan, the same 
year, where he has since resided. 

Mr. Pealer was twice Circuit Court com- 
missioner of St. Joseph county; prosecuting 
attorney three and one-half years; Circuit 
judge from 1882 until 1888, and a member of 
the Michigan State Legislature, 1888-1889. 
He has been thrice supported by more than 
200 delegates for the Republican nomination 
for the Supreme bench, and was one of the 
commissioners appointed by Governor Rich on 
the compilation of the Statutes of 1897. He 
is president of the First National Bank of 
Three Rivers, and has served on the school 
and other local boards and is an energetic 
business man and has a lucrative law practice. 
He is a member of the F. & A. M., a 
Knights Templar, and belongs to the M. E. 
church and has served as a lay delegate in its 
annual and general conferences. 

His wife was Sue F. Santee, daughter of 
Rev. William Santee, Bradford county, Penn- 
sylvania. They were married April 15, 1874. 
The Pealers were farmers of German 
descent, on his mother's side; his great-grand- 
father (Caleb Hopkins) was an Episcopal 
clergyman and a lieutenant in the Revolu- 
tionary War. 

He has two daughters, both of whom are 
happily married. Anna G. is the wife of 
George F. Knappen; Mary A. is the wife of 
Jay Bcryfogle. 



HTSTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



208 



HECK, HON. GEOEGE R. Hon. Geo. 
E. Heck, as his name Will indicate, is of Ger- 
man descent. He was born in St. Johns, 
Clinton County, Michigan, March 18, 1864, 
and his early life was spent on a farm at that 
place. His father, William Heck, came to 
Michigan from ]^ew York and became a 
prominent farmer in Clinton Coimty. His 
mother's father, Hon. E. S. Van Scoy was one 
of Michigan's pioneers and was at one time 
the largest wheat raiser in this state. He was 
elected to the legislature three times. 

George Heck, as a boy, worked about the 
farm owned by his father, walking three and 
a half miles daily to attend the Union school 
at Maple Eapids, after he had been through 
the district school near his home, and help- 
ing his mother about the house in churning 
aud other chores. He w^as fond of reading, 
liis mind turning toward biographical works 
and history, and he obtained his books from 
the library in Maple Eapids, often walking 
there barefoot in order to obtain reading mat- 
ter. He attended the high school at St. Johns 
two years and then supplemented this educa- 
tion by a course at the N^orthern Indiana 
Normal school at Valpariaso, Indiana. In 
the spring of 1891 he graduated from this 
institution's law department with the degree 
of bachelor of lavx^s, and on May 5 of the 
eame year he was admitted to practice in the 
Circuit Court of the United State at Indiana- 
polis, Ind. 

The money used to pay for his law educa- 
tion was earned by himself, as his father did 
not favor his study of that profession. The 
boy dug ditches and worked as a farm laborer, 
with the harvesting machine outfits during 
vacations, earning as much as $50, in the 
summer. His mother encouraged him in his 
ambitious attempts to become a lawyer and 
man of probity, and her death in the spring of 
1898 was the saddest blow that Mr. Heck 
•ever received. To her he gives the credit for 
all he has achieved in life. 

After graduating and being admitted to 
the bar he returned to his home at Maple 
Eapids and spent some time in looking after 




HON. GEORGE R. HECK. 

his farm, which consists of 430 acres. of splen- 
did land, and which he still superintends. 
The rfarm is a part of his deceased grand- 
father's estate, and is well stocked with fine 
breeds of cattle. In 1899 he was elected a 
member of the Legislature on the Eepublican 
ticket from Ingham County, and his term 
does not expire until 1900. He enjoys an 
extensive practice in Lansing, Michigan, and 
is ranked as one of the leading members of 
the Ingham County bar. 

In his youth he evinced his ability as an 
organizer by getting up a circus, of which he 
was ringmaster and proprietor. He has lost 
none of this faculty as was shown in the Re* 
publican county convention held in Mason in 
1896, when he was a candidate for the noln- 
ination of prosecuting attorney, and although 
there were several candidates for the same 
office, who finally combined their strength, he 
received 114 votes to 56 on the first ballot 
and was the only candidate nominated on the 
first ballot in that convention* Mr. Heck has 
been a member and a zealous worker in tlwft 
Patrons of Husbandry since 1883» He ia a 
Eoyal Arch Mason and a member of the !• 0* 
O. F. 



210 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




HON. AUGUST JOHN WEIER. 

WEIEK, HON. AUGUST JOHN. Au- 
gust John Weier was born October 21, 1871, 
in Monroe, Monroe County, Michigan. His 
father, Anthony Weier, and his mother, 
whose maiden name was Barbara Shuman, 
were both born in Germany, emigrating to 
America in 1854 and settling in Monroe 
County, where they were also married. 
Joseph Weier, Anthony's brother, was a 
member of the Legislature of 1869. 

August J. Weier acquired a practical edu- 
cation in the public and parochial schools of 
Monroe, and also at St. Francis' College of 
that city. After leaving school he entered the 
employ of his father, who was then engaged 
in operating a large bakery, and also growing 
grapes and manufacturing wine, and worked 
as bookkeeper. In 1891, the elder Weier 
organized the Weier Wine Company of Mon- 
roe, and since the organization of this con- 
cern, August J. Weier has acted as secretary 
and treasurer for the company. The Weier 
Wine Company has a paid up capital of 
$30,000 and is composed of the father, his 
two sons and a son-in-law. 

When but a young man, August J. Weier 



developed an aptitude for the study of social 
problems and before he attained his majority 
he was an interested auditor of political dis- 
cussions and an extensive reader of political 
economy. He did not select his party or 
principles until he had thoroughly studied 
all sides of the situation, and then, firm in 
the belief that the principles of democracy 
w^ere the true foundations of national pros- 
perity he identified himself with the demo- 
cratic party and cast his first vote for its 
nominee in 1892. 

He has been true to Democratic principles 
ever since, and an ardent supporter and 
vv'orker of that party. He is mentally sharp, 
keen and direct, and an agreement with him 
requires quick wits and a good understand- 
ing of the subject in discussion. Mr. Weier 
was elected to the Legislature of 1897-98 by 
195 majority, the nomination coming to him 
unsought, and he was renominated by ac- 
clamation for the term of 1899-1900, and 
re-elected by a vote of 1,809 to 1,403 for J. 
B. Sulier, the Republican candidate, and 22 
for ISTelson Davis, People's Party candidate. 

In the House, Mr. Weier is recognized as a 
poAverful speaker, a keen debater and an able 
leader. He was the special champion of the 
celebrated income tax bill which was brought 
up before the House in 1891). and he worked 
like a beaver in favor of its passage. He was 
also the author of the copper and iron taxation 
bill. All reform measures brought up before 
the House find a ready supporter in Eepresen- 
tative Weier, who is a strong advocate in favor 
of any measure tending toward reform and 
the betterment of conditions in this state. 

Mr. Weier is as yet a bachelor. He be- 
longs to the Knights of St. John in Monroe, 
and is also a member of the Toledo Travel- 
ing Men's Association, which has its head- 
quarters at Toledo, Ohio. When not at Lan- 
sing, Mr. Weier lives in the city of Monroe, 
Michigan, where ho is highly respected by 
his fellow-citizens, who look for still higher 
honors to be attained by the young Democrat 
who has so prominently identified himself 
with his State and party. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES, 



211 



CHADDOGK, HON. JOHN BENJA- 
illN. Prosecuting Attorney of Ionia county, 
John Benjamin Chaddock, of Ionia, Michi- 
gan, was born in Westphalia, this state, Octo- 
ber 10, 1863. Four years later his family 
moved to the village of Pewamo, Michigan, 
where, when reaching the proper age, he 
^.ttended the A^illage school until his sixteentli 
year, when he was sent to Olivet College foi 
five years, where lie took a preparatory and 
college course. It was his parents' desire that 
the boy should take up the study of medicine 
and the boy himself had a leaning toward that 
profession. While at Olivet College he had 
competed for and won the Drury prize of ora- 
tory, which probably was the cause of turn- 
ing him aside from medicine to law. Upon 
leaving college in 1886 he entered the law 
office of Hon. Frank A. Dean, of Charlotte, 
where he read law and did the work of the 
office for his board. In 1887 the death of 
his father m.ade him give up his law studies 
for a while and returning home remained 
v/ith his mother until her death in 1888. In 
the fall of this year he entered the Law De- 
partment of the University of Michigan. The 
following summer he read law in the office 
of Montgomery & Bundy at Grand Eapids, 
and returning to the University he graduated 
from that college in June, 1890. He was 
elected orator of his class and made the vale- 
dictory address. The summer and fall after 
leaving college he plunged into the heat of a 
political campaign and stumped the state for 
the Republican State Central Committee, 
where his gifts as an orator stood him in ex- 
cellent stead, and he won considerable honor 
for his brilliant and logical speeches. After 
the election the young man went to Ionia and 
entered the law office of Davis & Mchols, a 
prominent firm of that city, remaining with 
them until 1891, when he formed a partner- 
ship with James Scully under the firm name 
of Chaddock & Scully, which partnership re- 
sulted most successfully and still continues at 
the present AArriting. 

During the years of 1894 and 1895 Mr. 




HON. JOHN BENJ. CHADDOCK. 

Chaddock was chairman of the Kepublican 
County Committee. Ionia is generally looked ' 
upon as a doubtful county, yet Mr. Chaddock 
was nominated and elected on the Kepublican 
ticket for prosecuting attorney in 1896, being 
the only Kepublican elected on the ticket that 
year, and receiving a plurality of 21 votes. 
He was rcrolected in 1898, receiving a plural- 
ity of 713 votes. He was Circuit Commis- 
sioner from 1892 to 1896, mayor of Ionia in 
1894, elected on the Kepublican ticket by 66 
majority, overcoming a natural Democratic 
majority of 150. 

He married Miss Isolene Vosper, daughter 
of Attorney James Vosper, at Ionia, in 1896. 
He has two children, Dorothy and John V. 
Mr. Chaddock is a member of the F. and A. 
M and the K. A. M. 

Mr. Chaddock's father, William H. Chad- 
dock, came to Michigan in 1849 and located 
at Adrian. He entered the Medical Depart- 
ment of the U. of M., while his wife operated 
a boarding-house in order to pay expeiiB68» 
In 1867 he moved to Pewamo, Ionia ^tmt^^ 
where he was for thirty years a suceei^a^t 
practitioner. 



212 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




HON. JOHN VINCENT STARR. 

. STAKE, HON. JOHN VINCENT. For 
the past three terms St. Joseph, Michigan, has 
had for mayor of that city, Hon. John Vin- 
cent Starr, and Mr. Starr has given to the city 
an honest, upright and progressive executor- 
ship, winning the praise of political factions, 
and the firm support and friendship of all who 
are in favor of good government and desirous 
of seeing tJie city advance with the times. 

John Vincent Starr was born in Greencastle, 
Putnam county, Indiana, April 23, 1857. 
His parents were farmers in the Hoosier state, 
and as far back as he can trace his ancestry 
they were all engaged in the same pursuit. 
The boy attended the district school near his 
home and later the schools of Ladoga, Dan- 
ville and the Valparaiso, Normal School at 
Valparaiso, Indiana. His summer work was 
on the farm, but he had longings to step out 
of the trail that had become so hardened by 
the feet of his generations of ancestors, and 
made a success in life outside of farm work. 
He was the first of his famliy to do this. 
He had always been fond of tools, inheriting 
this from his father who was a known ex- 
]>ert in hewing house frames with an adze 



from rough timbers, so he made up his 
mind to follow the trade of a carpenter, 
and with this end in view, he apprenticed 
himself to a carpenter for three years, when 
he was 16 years of age, and rapidly acquired 
a proficiency with the divers tools used in car- 
pentering and building work. Coming as he 
did naturally by this trade, the boy soon ad- 
vanced rapidly in the art, and became a pro- 
ficient workman. He studied carefully, add- 
ing by reading and practical experience to 
his knowledge of the trade he had adopted and 
soon became widely known as an expert 
builder. He then, added architecture to his 
list of accomplishments, after reading and 
practicing that art, and he has succeeded in 
that so well that to-day he is known as one of 
the finest architects and builders in his section 
of the state. 

Many of the larger buildings in the town of 
Benton Plarbor and St. Joseph were planned 
and built by Mr. Starr. 

Mr. Starr is the only man who can claim 
the honor of having been mayor of St. Joseph 
for three consecutive terms. He is enthusi- 
astic in the growth and prosperity of his city, 
and is looked upon as a business man of ster- 
ling integrity, and exceptional business abili- 
ties. He combines with these qualities a rare 
fund of good humor, a handshake that is cor- 
dial and welcome, and an unfailing memory 
that is always holding in its scope the many 
friends he has made on his way through life. 

Mr. Starr is a Mason, a member of Occiden- 
tal Lodge, No. 56, of St. Joseph; Calvin Brit- 
ain Chapter, No. 72, Royal and Select Mas- 
ters, No. 44, of St. eloseph, the Knights of 
the Maccabees, the Modem Woodmen of the 
World, Patrician, New Era, and a charter 
member of the Commercial Club, of St. Jo- 
seph. 

On September 10, 1883, he married Miss 
Cordelia Beeves, daughter of W. A. and 
Martha A. Beeves, of Glreencastle, Indiana, 
tlie marriage taking place in that city. He 
has two children, Louisa, his daughter, being 
15 years of age, and Edgar L. Starr, his son, 
13 years of age. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



218 



CARLSON, CONRAD. Attorney Con- 
rad Carlson, of Bessemer, Michigan, was born 
in Falkenberg, Sweden, February 29, 1862. 
His father was a contractor and builder and 
his ancestors were farmers and soldiers. As 
a boy he attended the common schools of his 
native place and afterward the College of 
Ilalmstad until 1871. 

He intended to make law his profession and 
for one year he worked as clerk in the office of 
the collector of crown taxes, receiving about 
$100 a year, and then realizing that there 
were few^ prospects of his ever becoming a 
successful lawyer in his native land, until he 
acquired prestige with gray hair, he decided 
to try his fortunes in America. His father 
advanced him enough money to pay his steer- 
age passage, and to enable him to pay his 
way to the western part of this country, and 
on May 22, 1872, the young man found him- 
self in Ishpeming, Michigan. He was well 
educated in Latin, Greek, English and Ger- 
man, but he found that he could not speak 
English although he could translate it fairly 
well. 

There was yerj little difficulty in obtaining 
employment in those busy times in that sec- 
tion of Michigan, if a man really felt the 
inclination to labor, and young Carlson found 
work the day after his arrival in the open pit 
of the Lake Superior Iron mine at $2.50 per 
day, earning enough in a month to repay his 
father the money advanced for his passage. 

In the dull times of the panic of 1873 all 
the immarried men employed on the mine 
were laid off, and young Carlson waited with 
many others for word that they would be put 
back to work. One day he acted as an in- 
terpreter for some newly arrived Swedes in 
the office of Dr. B. S. Bigelow and the doc- 
tor offered him a position in the hospital, 
where for the first time in six months Carl- 
son indulged his appetite in a full meal. His 
salary was $25 a month and shortly after- 
ward when it was discovered that he was a 
competent bookkeeper and penman, he was 
made cashier of the general store of Myers 
& Bigelow, and remained with the firm 




CONRAD CARLSON. 



until 1879, when he was elected city recorder 
of Ishpeming, and served as such for six 
years. He was also elected justice of the 
peace in 1880, and in 1881 he started a 
Swedish newspaper, which he afterwards 
sold. In 1884 he opened a general insurance 
office and while out seeking business he be- 
came impressed wdth the prospects in store 
for the little town of Bessemer, and selling 
out his insurance business in 1886 he took up 
his residence in that place. He went into 
the mercantile business there under the firm 
name of Markstrum & Carlson and in 1887 
was elected county clerk of Gogebic County, 
and selling out his interest in the general store 
he served as county clerk for twelve years, 
and during that time made the abstract books 
of the county, which were purchased by 
Gogebic County in 1899. Mr. Carlson was 
admitted to the bar in 1893 by Judge Daball, 
and since his retirement from the cotmty 
clerk's office he has practiced his profession in 
Bessemer. He married in 1877 Miss Emnoia 
Helen Lundahl at Ishpeming, and has two 
children. Mr. Carlson is a Kepublican. He is 
a member of Ironwood Commandery, Ki % 



%u 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




HON. DAVID D. AITKEN. 

AITKEN, HON. DAYID D. David D. 
Aitken, a leading attorney of the city of Flint, 
Michigan, was born September 5, 1854, in 
Flint township, Michigan. His father's farm 
was located about four and one-half miles 
from Flint, and, as a boy, the first employ- 
ment of the younger Aitken was on the farm, 
where he grew up, learning to guide the plow 
and swing the scythe, attending the district 
school during the winters. He earned a little 
money for himself now and then, assisting the 
neighboring farmers when he could be spared 
from work on his father's place, and finished 
his school education in the Flint High School. 

When IS years of age he was unfortunate 
enough to break his leg in five places, through 
an accident while engaged in hauling wood 
with a pair of colts on the farm. This kept 
him confined for some time, and when he had 
partially rei»overed he commenced the reading 
of law in the office of Judge William Newton, 
but soon left the office to accept a position of 
bookkeeper with a firm engaged in the lumber 
business in the state of New Jersey, where he 
remained for some time, and later on travelled 
OB the road for the same firm. 



In 1870 he commenced the study of law in 
New York city, and returned to Flint in 1878, 
where he was admitted to the bar by Judge 
Turner, then Circuit Judge, and accepted a 
position in the office of Long & Grold, then 
leading practitioners of that city, and, in the 
following year entered into co-partnership 
with Ed. S. Lee, under the firm name of Lee 
& Aitken, and which co-partnership existed 
for several years until Judge Charles H. Wis- 
ner was admitted, and the firm name was 
changed to Wisner, Lee & Aitken, which 
continued until Mr. Aitken was elected to 
Congress on the Republican ticket in 1892. 

He was extremely popular with his party, 
and his record as a congressman was such that 
he receiv(^d by acclamation the renomination 
for the folloAdng term, and was elected by an 
increased majority. He made an enviable 
record in his office but absolutely refused to 
be a candidate for a third term, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that he was practically tendered 
the nomination by acclamation. 

He was a candidate for the Republican 
nomination for governor in 1896, but was de- 
feated in the convention by Gov. Pingree. 
After the expiration of his last term in Con- 
gress, he figain took up the practice of law, 
making, insurance law a specialty, in which 
professioii he is still engaged. 

Mr. Aitken has been clerk and attorney for 
the city of Flint. He is a thirty-second de- 
gree Mason, a Knights Templar and a Noble 
of the Mystic Shrine. He is general counsel 
of the Supreme Tent, K. O. T. M., and of the 
Supreme Hive, L. 0. T. M., and was for sev- 
eral years on the executive council of the In- 
dependent Order of Foresters. 

Mr. Aitken is interested extensively in 
farming, owning one farm of 600 acres, on 
which he raises short-horn cattle. He is a 
director of the Citizens' Commercial & Sav- 
ings Bank, of the Flint Electric Light Com- 
pany, and of the McCormick Harness Com- 
pany, all of Flint. He is also one of three 
persons who constitute the Flint Woolen 
Mills Company, a co-partnership engaged in 
the manufacture of woolens. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



2m 



WETEE, HON. JAMES E. Hon. James 
E. Weter, representa^tive from the First Dis- 
trict of Macomb county, Michigan, was born 
at Palmyra, Lenawee county, in this state, 
April 9, 1857. His parents were farmers, 
his father and mother both coming to Michi- 
gan from New York state in 1836 and locat- 
ing on a farm in Lenawee county, where the 
elder Weter is still living. 

Young Weter's education was commenced 
in the district school near his home, and sup- 
plemented by a two-years' course at the 
Adrian College, in Adrian, Michigan. He 
was a mischievous but studious lad and his 
parents had hard work to keep him at school. 
I'hey had determined, however, that he 
should hot be handicapped in his future life 
by a meagre education and prevailed upon 
him to remain at school as long as possible. 
To this fact Mr. Weter is indebted for all the 
success that he has met with. Upon leaving 
school he rented a small farm and for seven 
years followed that pastoral occupation, work- 
ing hard and earnestly and saving his money 
until, when he attained his twenty-eighth year, 
he found himself with $3,500 on hand. With 
this capital he started in the business that he 
still operates at Richmond, Macomb county, 
in partnership with another, under the firm 
name of Weter, Fanning Company, banking 
and wholesaling eggs. In order to do this he 
was compelled to go heavily into debt, but the 
venture proved a successful one, and the firm 
is now one of the wealthiest in Michigan, hav- 
ing the largest exclusive egg business in this 
state. 

It took three or four years' hard work to 
make the enterprise an independent one, but, 
in that time every dollar of indebtedness was 
cleared off and the business built up on a 
strong foundation. Five years ago Mr. Weter 
became interested in the manufacture of hay 
bale ties, and is vice-president of the Consoli- 
dated Hay Bale Tie Company, of Richmond. 

He is also president of the Macomb County 
Savings Bank of Richmond, Michigan. This 
bank was organized with a capital of 
$25,000, September, 1898. It is now 




HON. JAMES E. WETER. 

one of the sound financial institutions 
of Macomb county. Mr. Weter is also 
interested in the Ullrich Savings Bank of Mt. 
Clemens, and a stockholder in the Michigan 
State Telephone Company. 

Mr. Weter was president of the village of 
Richmond for six years. He was elected to 
the House of 1S99-1900 by a vote of 1,858 to 
1,651 for Warren S. Stone, Democratic-Peo- 
ple' s-Union-Silver candidate, and 48 for John 
S. Harris, Prohibitionist. As president of the 
village Board of Trustees in Richmond, Mr. 
Weter was instrumental in putting in the fine 
water plant and lighting plant which the in- 
habitants of that village now enjoy, and in 
adding many other improvements to the vil- 
lage. He has travelled considerably in the 
United States and has spent some time in 
Texas and Florida. He has been a delegate to 
many state conventions, and his nomination 
for the Legislature came to him entirely unso- 
licit-ed. 

Mr. Weter married Miss Emma A. Whit- 
marsh, daughter of Charles Whitmarah, at 
Lenawee Junction, April 9, 1895. He fcas 
three children. ' He belongs to the MasolM^ 
Odd Fellows and Maccabees. 



216 



MEN OF PEOGRESS. 




HON. EDWARD NELSON DINGLEY. 

DINGLEY, HON. EDWAED NELSON. 
Hon. Edward Nelson Dingley, representative 
to the house from the First District of Kala- 
mazoo county, is naturally fitted to take his 
place among the statesmen of this country. 
His grandfather, Nelson Dingley, was a 
member of the State Senate in Maine, and 
prominent in political and business circles 
throughout that state, and Hon. Nelson Ding- 
ley, Jr., the father of the sp.bject of this 
sketch, was governor of Maine for two terms, 
a member of the State Legislature for three 
terms, and a member of Congress from 1882 
until 1899. 

Edward Nelson Dingley w^as born in Lewis- 
ton, Maine, August 21, 1862. He was edu- 
cated in the public schools of that city and 
graduated from the high school in 1879. He 
then spent one year at Bates College, Lewis- 
ton> and entering the sophomore class of Yale 
University, graduated in 1883 with the de- 
gree of A. B. Spent two years in the law 
department of the Columbian University at 
Washington, D. C, and graduated with the 
degree of LL. B. in 1885. He then went 
to Lewiston, where he engaged in the news- 
paper business and became one of the editors 



of the Lewiston Journal. The following 
year he w^ent to Boston, Massachusetts, and 
became the legislative reporter and poli- 
tical man on the Advertiser and - Eecord, 
leaving that city for Leavenworth, Kansas, to 
take the- position of editor on the Leaven- 
worth Times. Since 1888 he has been edi- 
tor and publisher of the Kalamazoo daily and 
semi- weekly Telegraph. 

In February, 1897, he was elected presi- 
dent of the Michigan League of Eepublican 
Clubs and was Michigan's candidate for presi- 
dent of the National League of Eepublican 
Clubs, in July, 1898, at the convention in 
Omaha, Nebraska. He was candidate for the 
Michigan House of Eepresentatives in 1890 
and 1892, and failed to be nominated both 
times, but received a unanimous nomination 
for that office in the Eepublican Legislative 
Convention of his district, held in August, 
1898. He was elected to the house of 1899- 
1900 by a vote of 2,376 to 1,671 for Fred- 
erick Cellem, Democratic-People's-Union-Sil- 
ver candidate, and 73 votes for Garland B. St. 
John, Prohibitionist. In June, 1898, he was 
appointed clerk of the ways and means com- 
mittee of the National House of Eepresenta- 
tives, resigning in December, 1899. 

He married, December 22, 1888, Miss Mir- 
iam Gardner Eobinson, daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. H. C. Eobinson, of Boston, Massachu- 
setts. He has had three children, two of 
whom are living. Irene is ten years of age, 
and Nelson III. six years; Miriam died when 
live months old. 

Mr. Dingley has always been intensely in- 
terested in politics and a contributor of 
articles on social and political questions to 
newspapers and magazines. He has made a 
special study of taxation, sociology and state- 
craft, and W'as prominent in the State Legisla- 
ture of 1899 in the contests over tax bills. 
His education, together with his descent from, 
a family of statesmen, has made him a lead- 
ing authority on political questions. He 
is a good talker and takes firm stands in all 
his arguments, from which many have tried 
without success to shake him. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



21T 



WAYNE, HOK DUNCAN A. Hon. 
Duncan A. Wayne, of Bradford, Michigan, 
comes from a family that claims as its ances- 
tor that historical character of early Ameri- 
can history, "Mad'' Anthony Wayne. 

Duncan Wayne was born in the county of 
Norfolk, Ontario, January 7, 1858, and was 
the youngest child of a family of six. When 
he was but a year old the death of his father 
left his mother alone in the world to look 
after her six little ones, and she struggled 
hard in order to support them, weaving and 
selling homespun cloth. The very clothes 
worn by the children were made by her. In 
summer they appeared in linen from her own 
loom and in winter warm woolen garments of 
homespun from the same source served to 
keep them warm and comfortable. A little 
farm which had been left by the father and 
upon which the family lived, had a small 
stock of sheep, and the flax was grown upon 
the farm from which the linen was made. 
The farm had been worked and cleared up by 
the father and elder children from a wild 
state, and by its means the mother kept her 
children about her. 

When he was 12 years old young Wayne 
became the main support of his mother, work- 
ing on the farm in the summer-time, helping 
gather in and plant the crops, and when win- 
ter arrived going into the woods and working 
in the lumber camps. He worked for Stephen 
L. Wiggins, of East Saginaw, in the lumber 
camp operated by him, and the first clothes he 
ever purchased were earned by young Wayne 
in this manner. Salaries were not high in 
those days, and the boy only received $14 a 
month while working for Wiggins; out of 
this he sent the greater portion to his mother 
and saved enough to buy his first suit of store 
clothes. 

In 1872 the family came to Michigan and 
settled on a farm of 50 acres, near Bradford. 
The purchase price of this little tract of land 
was $560, and the first payment was $8, the 
balance being on contract. This meant a 
good deal of money, if the family ever hoped 
to become free owners of their homestead, and 




HON. DUNCAN A. WAYNE. 

on Duncan Wayne the work of making all 
the payments now evolved. . The boy labored 
industriously toward this end and eventually 
had the satisfaction of clearing the place of 
its indebtedness and handing the farm over to 
his mother. His devotion for his maternal 
parent kept him a bachelor for many years, 
and he did not marry until 1892, when he 
wedded Miss Maud C. Neff, of Bradford, 
Michigan, in that city. He brought his wife 
home with him, and in 1893 his mother 
passed away- in the little home that had been 
purchased for her by her youngest son. 

The original 50 acres of that little farm 
has now been increased to 160 by Mr. Wayne, 
and he still operates it. Mr. Wayne held the 
office of supervisor at Mount Haley township, 
Midland county, for 15 consecutive terms and 
chairman of the board of supervisors four 
terms up to 1898, when he was elected a mem- 
ber of the present Legislature, and he was a 
member of the school board in his district 
many times. He was postmaster at Bradford 
until he was sent to the Legislature, and the 
postoffice being located on Mr. Wayne*d farm, 
his wife has succeeded Him in that office. He 
has two children, Lelia Madelaine and Fi^r- 
ieyD. 



ai& 



MEN OF PROGEESS. 




ADOLPHUS AGUSTUS ELLIS. 

ELLIS, ADOLPHUS AUGUSTUS. 
Adolphus Augustus Ellis, attorney at law, of 
Ionia, Mich., is the son of Elmer E. Ellis, 
one of the early settlers of Vermontville, 
Eaton county, Mich., who came there from 
Cayuga county. New York, in 1847. 

Adolphus A. Ellis, the subject of this 
sketch, was bom on his father's farm in Ver- 
montville, October 5, 1848, and after he ar- 
rived at school age, and until his fifteenth 
year, attended the district school in the win- 
ters. He spent his summers laboring upon the 
faim. When he was about ten years of age, 
his father gave him three sheep, which, to- 
gether with the increase, he sold, in the fall of 
1864, preceding his sixteenth birthday, and 
with this fund to buy his books and clothing, 
he entered the public school of Charlotte, 
boarding at the home of Attorney E. A. Foote 
and doing chores for his board. 

In the winter of 1864 he enlisted, intend- 
ing to go into the Fifth Michigan Cavalry, 
but was unable to pass the physical examina- 
tion. He returned to school and finished the 
school yfear; then he "went west,'' to Iowa, 



where for three years he worked as a farm 
hand in the summer and attended school in 
the winters, near Newton, la. He returned 
to Michigan in the fall of 1868 and engaged 
in hardwood lumbering, and, with the money 
earned, was able to enter Olivet College in 
1869. He Avas able to get along until the 
spring term of 1871, when, his funds being ex- 
hausted, he made preparation to leave school. 
Thomas A. Savage, the village blacksmith, 
prevailed upon him to accept a loan of fifty 
dollars necessary to complete the year's school- 
ing. Young Ellis gave his note for the 
amount, and as soon as school ended, by his 
labor as a farm-hand and shearing sheep, 
earned the money and paid the note. The 
winter of 1871 and 1872 he taught school in 
a country district a few miles west of Char- 
lotte and "boarded round." In the spring 
term of 1872 he taught in the Grand Ledge 
schools, where he continued the following two 
years, devoting his spare time to the study of 
law during the school months, and in the vaca- 
tion getting what practice he could in the law 
office of Shaw & Pennington, attorneys at 
Charlotte. He was admitted to the bar be- 
'fore Judge Lovell at Ionia, January 5, 1876. 
• He commenced practice in Muir, where he 
remained until January 1, 1881, when he 
removed to Ionia, where he has since resided 
and practiced his profession. 

Mr. Ellis married in 1874 Miss Mattie 
Nichols, daughter of George W. Nichols, of 
Oneida, Eaton county. They have two chil- 
dren, HoAvard A., attending Olivet College, 
and George N., attending high school. 

Mr. Ellis was elected prosecuting attorney 
of Ionia county in 1884 and re-elected in 
1886; was elected attorney-general of the 
state of Michigan in 1890 and re-elected in 
1892. The citizens of Ionia elected him 
mayor of Ionia five times, 1890-91-97-98 and 
1899. 

Mr. Ellis is a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight 
of Pythias, and belongs to the K. O. T. M., I. 
O. O. F., A. O. U. W., R. A. and B. O. P. E. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



319 



TYRRELL, HON. JOHN E. John E. 
Tyrrell is nn Irishman by birth, having been 
born in Dublin, Ireland, January 28, 1848. 
He has had a history, that if written up in 
detail, would furnish most interesting read- 
ing, for ho has served under two flags, one 
that his own people endeavored to raise over 
an independent country many years ago, and 
the flag of an alien land, now his adopted 
country, when the Southern States sought to 
make two countries out of one. When a very 
young child, Mr. Tyrrell came to this country 
and located in New York state. His educa- 
tion was completed there at St. John's College 
in Fordham, which is one of the finest Cath- 
olic institutions of its kind in New York state. 
While attending this college in 1864, in 
answer to the call of President Lincoln, young 
Tyrrell put aside his books and took up the 
musket in their stead, enlisting as a private in 
the Fifty-sixth New York Infantry, and 
serving six months in that regiment. The Fe- 
nian cause shortly after this agitated Ireland 
and the young man immediately offered 
his services, and in January, 1867, he 
left New York for Ireland, and reported to 
General Halpin, then in command of the 
Fenians. 

Tyrrell was detailed on the staff of the 
general, and he served through the great re- 
bellion of that time, taking part in many 
fierce struggles and participating in the 
battle of AVicklow Mountains on March 7, 
1867. This was one of the hardest fought bat- 
tles of the rebellion. Four days later, on 
March 11, Tyrrel was captured by the Eng- 
lish as a suspect and held as a prisoner until 
the following May, when, upon his release 
May 23, 1867, he determined to return to 
America, and taking the firet opportunity of- 
fered him, arrived in New York City, June 
10, 1867. The active part he had taken in the 
struggle for liberty made by his fellow 
countrymen, together with the vast amount of 
misery and suffering he had witnessed there 
filled the young patriot's h#art with a desire to 
do something toward alleviating the existing 
conditions and working toward the final free- 




HON. JOHN E. TYRRELL. 

dom of his native land. He went to Canada 
and there organized a division of Fenians. 
The Canadian government soon set their se- 
cret service to work and discovered the ex- 
istence of the division and soon Mr. Tyrrell 
became an object of interest for the govern- 
ment detectives, so, as he did not desire an- 
other experience in an English prison, he left 
Canada behind him and returned to the 
United States. He came to Michigan in 
March, 1868, and has lived in this state ever 
since, his present address being Jackson, Mich. 
Mr. Tyrrell has never sought political office. 
He is a Eepublican, and was chairman of the 
Blaine-Logan Club in 1884 on the occasion of 
Mr. Blaine's visit to this State during his cam- 
paign tour. Mr. Tyrrell was elected represen- 
tative to the Legislature from the City Dis- 
trict of Jackson, for the se^ion of 1889. He 
has served in the National Guard since 1875, 
was commissioned captain in 1884, major in 
1888; lieutenant-colonel in 1889, colanel First 
Infantry 1892, and brigadier-general torn- 
manding brigade in 1898. He married Mm 
Katherine Wilsey, daughter of Solomon. Wft* 
sey, August 31, 1870, at Dexter, M^Bi^^i 



MEN QF PROGKESS. 




JAMES HENRY SE.AGER. 

SEAGER, JAMES HENRY. Seager is 
a name that belongs to Connecticut, where, 
ever since the early days when that state 
formed a part of the colonies in possession of 
Great Britain, the family has lived and flour- 
ished, always taking an active part in the his- 
torical changes of the government, and serv- 
ing in the colonial troops during the revo- ■ 
lution. 

James Henry Seager was born in Roches- 
ter, New York, on the 27th day of December, 
184C. His father. Reverend Schuyler Sea- 
ger, was a Methodist minister, who held 
charges in many of the cities throughout west- 
ern New York, and in later years was presi- 
dent of the Genesee Wesleyan College at 
Lima, New York. 

Owing to his father's calling, which necessi- 
tated his traveling from place to place, young 
Seager was afforded opportunities to study in 
variou;* cities and towns throughout western 
New York. His education concluded with a 
year at the Michigan Agricultural CoUec^e, in 
1863-'64. 

While attending the latter college he was 
tendered a position as paymaster's clerk under 



Colonel Hiram F. Hale, which he accepted, 
serving in the department until some months 
after the close of the war. He was then made 
cashier of the Junction City, Kansas, bank, 
and held this position imtil 1870. While in 
Kansas Mr. Seager was also interested in levee 
building, dredging and railroad construction. 

In the year 1 871 he closed out his business 
interests in Kansas and returned to Michigan, 
finally settling in Houghton, where he repre- 
sented his brother-in-law, S. L. Smith, of the 
firm of Smith & Harris, of that place. On 
the dissolution of this firm he went into busi- 
ness for himself, opening a general store at 
the Franklin mine, near the town of Han- 
cock, also conducting a branch at Ripley, on 
Portage T^ke, opposite Houghton. The^e 
stores have been successfully operated ever 
since. 

Mr. Seager is a man of shrewd business 
instinct, and takes a keen interest in the vari- 
ous commercial affaii^s with which he has be- 
come connected. He is the vice-president 
of the National Bank of Houghton, Michi- 
gan, and also of the Peninsular Electric 
Light & Power Company of that city. He 
is president of the Copper Range Railroad 
and of the Portage Lake Foundry & Machine 
Company, the New Douglass Hotel Company 
of Houghton, and the Mining Gazette Com- 
pany. 

For several terms he filled the office of 
supervisor, but his business interests have of 
late years increased to such an extent that he 
has been prevented from accepting political 
oflfice. 

He has done much toward developing many 
of the mining industries of the Upper Penin- 
sula, and was one of the promoters of the 
Baltic Mining Company and the Copper 
Range JVlining Company, of Houghton, both 
of which have turned out most profitably. 
Mr. Seager lives in Houghton, Michigan, 
where he is a representative capitalist and 
merchant. 

Mr. Seager married, at Fayette, Missouri, 
in 1869, Miss Laura Shafroth. 



TIISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



221 



WHALEY, EGBERT JEROME. Robert 
Jerome Whaley, president of the Citizens' 
Commercial and Savings Bank of Flint, 
Mich., and a capitalist and real estate owner 
of that city, was bom December 8, 1840, in 
Castile, New York state. His family is of 
English descent, the first Whaley that came 
to America was one Edward Whaley, who 
was one of the three regicide judges that or- 
dered King Charles I. to the scaffold, during 
that period when Cromwell was in power. 

Edward Whaley, upon the accession of 
Charles II., sought safety in the colonies, hid- 
ing from the agents of Charles II. for years 
in New Haven, Conn., where he is supposed 
to be buried. 

Robert, the grandfather of the subject of 
this sketch, built the first saw mill ever 
erected in Wyoming county, New York state, 
in 1806. His son, and Robert J. Whaley's 
father, Jeremiah Whaley, were engaged in 
operating a small farm near Castile, N. Y., 
when Robert was born. His education was 
obtained in the district school, and when he 
was four years of age his father opened a 
hotel in Pike, N. Y., where the boy attended 
the more advanced school of the village. 

In 1850 the Whaley family moved to St. 
Croix county. Wis., and was one of the first 
families to settle at Willow River, now 
known as Hudson, Wis. He started a general 
store and continued in that business for ten 
years. Young Whaley helped his father in 
the store until December 16, 1861, when he 
went to Caledonia, New York, where his 
grandmother owned a farm. The next four 
years were spent in working his grandmother's 
farm on shares, and this gave him a good 
financial start. Upon the death of his grand- 
parent he returned to Hudson and purchased 
a farm of 320 acres and remained there two 
years, and in October, 1867, came to Michi- 
gan. 

January 24, 1867, he married Miss Mary 
McFarlan, in Elint, Mich., and retuirned to 




ROBERT JEROME WHALET. 

Hudson with his wife, where he remained un- 
til the following October. Then he went to 
Flint, and has lived there ever since. He now 
entered the lumber business, entering the mill 
yard of his father-in-law, sorting and piling 
and learning to scale lumber and logs, and 
going into the wood in winter. He continued 
in his lumbering operations until the death of 
his wife's father, Alexander McFarlane, in 
1881. He then closed out the interests and 
devoted his time to looking after the estate 
until 1894. Since that time Mr. Whaley has 
looked after his farming interests. 

Mr. Whaley is a director in the Flint Watei' 
Works Company and the Flint City GaB 
Company. He was a member of the Centi*al 
Board of Control of Michigan State Institu- 
tions during the Winans administration, 
1891-1892, and established the precedent of 
returning to the state all funds saved chiring 
the year. He is a member of Michigan Sov- 
ereign Consistory of Detroit, Mason, Temp- 
lar and Shriner, and has been great finanee 
keeper of the great camp of Michi^m^ K* O* 
T. M., for the past eighteen years. 



822 



MEN OF PBOGRESS. 



a^^^{^vf:^^ 


||M 






9 




i* >^^^^Sra|^^^^H 


H| 


^^^^^H^^K-^C 




I^H 


^^p 




^^H 


^■k 


^^^^I^^^^^^^H 


R 


H^ 


^"^^^»-3j^-f:l§E 




H^p 



OILMAN JONES McCLINTOCK. 

McCLINTOCK, GILMAN JONES. 
Gilman Jones McClintock, at present engaged 
in a prosperous real estate and insurance busi- 
ness in Laingsburg, Mich., was born in 
Arcadia, Wayne county, New York state, 
September 27, 1832. His father. Freeman 
McClintock, was a well-known physician in 
Shiaw^assee county in its early days, and a 
descendant of the old New England family 
of McClintock. His mother was Lydia A. 
Short. 

Until he was fifteen years of age young 
McClintock lived on a farm and attended 
district school at Bainbridge, Ohio, in which 
place the family resided. Later he attended 
the Chester Seminary at Chester, Ohio, where 
he first formed the acquaintance of James A. 
Garfield, the martyred president of the 
United States who w^as attending this college. 

Young McClintock's father was desirous of 
having his son follow the medical profession, 
but the boy favored the mercantile business 
or tke life of a farmer, so in 1851 he married 
Miss Wealthy A. Marshall at Bainbridge, 
Ohio, and coming to Michigan, located on a 
farm about one and one-half miles east of 
Lai&gsburg. 



When his father went to California in the 
following year, the son looked after the col- 
lection of his outstanding debts. He then 
Avent to work in the ge^ieral store of E. B. 
Smith, and became postmaster under Presi- 
dent Franklin Pierce. 

Upon the return of his father from Cali- 
fornia, in 1856, the father and son together 
purchased the general store operated by E. B. 
Smith and commenced business under the 
firm name of F. McClintock & Son. This 
partnership continued until 1860, when the 
Ibusiness was sold. 

The younger McClintock continued as 
postmaster until 1861, when he commenced 
to organize a military company to take part 
in the civil war. He was mustered in as first 
lieutenant in Co. D, Fourteenth Michigan 
Infantry, November 18, 1861, and partici- 
pated in several skirmishes from Pittsburg 
Landing to Corinth, and was then sent to the 
hospital at Farmington, Miss., where he was 
confined with typhoid fever for, over two 
months. Eeturning home in 1862, he re- 
joined his father in the mercantile business. 
In 1868 he started on his own account alone. 
In the meantime he secured the appointment 
of postmaster under Johnson. After run- 
ning a general store for four years, he sold 
out all his interests in 1872, and since that 
time has been engaged in farming. He 
took up insurance and real estate in 1879, 
and returned to Laingsburg, where he has 
since been identified with a successful real 
estate and insurance business and was post- 
master during both of Cleveland's administra- 
tions. 

Mr. McClintock's first wife died in 1879, 
and he re-married in 1883, his second wife 
being a Miss Clara D. Webb, of Holly, New 
York. He has five children; Ellen M. is the 
wife of G. D. Millspaugh, of Albion; Helen 
M., wife of Eev. Samuel Bird, Denton, Mich. ; 
Minnie lives with her elder sister, Carrie, wife 
of Watson Wesley, of Port Huron, Mich.; 
and Frankie is a teacher in the kindergarten 
at Port Huron. 

Mr. McClintock is past commander of 
Henry Demming Post, G. A. R, No. 192, 
and a member of the Masonic fraternity. He 
is a Democrat and occupied the position of 
supervisor in his county for four terms. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



228 



SALSBUEY, LAITT K. Mr. Salsbury 
will certainly rank as a representative Michi- 
gan man, if push and a readiness to adapt him- 
self to various pursuits, as a means to ^^get 
there,'^ Avill pass as credentials. Acting alter- 
nately as teacher, book agent, live stock 
dealer, farm hand and railway mail clerk, and 
getting his education in detached sections, as 
a limited financial means made possible, he ^ 
now occupies a leading position at the bar. 
Living on his father's farm in Washtenaw 
coimty, he attended the neighborhood school 
until he was 14, after which he attended the 
Lowell (Kent county) high school for two 
years. At the age of 16 (1883) he received 
a third grade teacher's certificate and took 
charge of the Star district school in Bowne 
township, Kent county. The former teacher 
had been fired through the window by the 
large male pupils. The district had over 60 
pupils, and the director agreed to pay him $60 
per month, in view, no doubt, of their large 
number and unruly character. The second 
week the boys tried to send him through the 
window after the other teacher, but courage 
and muscle, aided by a heavy hickory ruler, 
gave him the victory. He was offered $75 
per month for another year, but preferred to 
take a school nearer his former home, which 
he taught for a year. He entered Albion 
College in the spring of 1884, graduating 
from there in 1887, during the vacations act- 
ing as book agent, farm hand and live stock 
dealer. LTpon leaving college he commenced 
the study of law in the office of John M. Mat- 
hewson, of Lowell, but his funds running 
short, he received an appointment in the mail 
service, through the influence of the late Con- 
gressman M. H. Ford, of Grand Kapids. He 
was removed from the position (April, 1888) 
for "offensive partisanship" and was subse- 
quently reinstated, but declined further ser- 
vice. In the meantime he resumed the study 
of law in the office of Turner & Carroll, of 
Grand Kapids, remaining there some two 
years. ^NTearly a year at the University Law 
School, which was cut short by want of funds, 
followed, w^hen in March, 1890, he was ad- 
mitted to practice upon examination before 
the Supreme Court. The following July he 
opened an office at Grand Rapids, his office 
outfit consisting of a desk, carpet, two chairs 




LAUT K. SALSBURY. 

and four books, got on the strength of money 
borrowed for the purpose. He had clients 
the first week, and arose to prominence in the 
profession through his connection with the 
Egan murder trial. Since 1891 he has been 
a member of the law firm of Maher & Sals- 
bury, of Grand Rapids. He was appointed 
city attorney of Grand Rapids in May, 1899, 

Mr. Salsbury was born at Saline, Washte- 
naw county, March 1, 1867. His father, 
George L., was a farmer and a direct descen- 
dant of the Salsburys, who came to America 
in 1622, the present Lord Salisbury, of Eng- 
land, representing the English branch of the 
family. . His mother, Corinthia Edwards, was 
descended from the Vermont branch of the 
Edwards family. Mr. Salsbury was married 
ISTovember 10, 1890, to Miss Gertrude 
Shanks, daughter of Mark Shanks, of Clarks- 
ville. They have one daughter, Helen, born 
in 1896. 

Politically Democratic, Mr. Salsbury has 
twice represented his party as candidate for 
prosecuting attorney of his county, and as 
delegate to the National Convention in 1896. 
In a business way, he is president and general 
manager of the Collins Hook & Eye Co., of 
Grand Rapids, employing some Y5 people* 
His society connections are Masonic, W^ 
Knijrhts of Pvthias, K 0. T. M., I O. F. and 

w. b. w. 



224 



me:n^- of peogeess. 




HON. JUDGE ROLLIN HARLOW PERSON. 

PEESON, HON. JUDGE EOLLIN 
IIAELO W. EoUin Harlow Person was ap- 
pointed circuit judge of the new Thirtieth 
Judicial Circuit by Governor Winans, Febru- 
ary, 1891, and in the following April was 
elected for the three years' vacancy and in 
1893, nominated by all four parties, re- 
elected without opposition for the full term. 

He was born in Livingston county, Michi- 
gan, October 15, 18o0. His father, Corne- 
lius Harlow Person, was a farmer near 
Howell, Michigan, and as he was injured by 
the kick of a horse and unable to attend to the 
farm work alone, the boy was able to attend 
the district school but little after he was 10 
years of age. Young Person continued his 
studies, as much as possible, under the direc- 
tion of his father, reading and studying dur- 
ing his few spare hours, and when he was 19 
years of age he attended a teacher's class at 
Howell and won a teacher's certificate. He 
taught two winter terms after that; and then 
returned to the public school, having saved . 
sufficient money to enable him to do so. In 
in the spring of 1871 he was given a first grade 
teacher's certificate, and that same year he 
was made deputy register of deeds. During 



the year of 1872 he read law in the office of 
Dennis Shields, of Howell, and in the fall and 
winter of 1872-73 attended the Law Depart- 
ment of the University. Like most poor stu- 
dents at this University, Mr. Person had to 
work his way through in many ways. He 
sawed wood in almost every back yard in Ann 
Arbor, and mush and molasses furnished his 
daily diet. He was admitted to the bar in 
1873, and the same year, shortly after grad- 
uating, married Miss Ida M. Madden, daugh- 
ter of James G. Madden, at Manmouth, 
Illinois. Taking the advice of Horace 
Greeley, he started west, landing in Eepub- 
lican City, N'ebraska, with his wife, and find- 
ing himself a thousand miles from home with 
less than $5 on hand. 

Eepubliean City at that period was the 
center of the county seat war and the Indian 
troubles, and there was plenty of excitement 
going on most of the time. The county clerk, 
who was also register of deeds, learning that 
Person was conversant with the duties of that 
office, and being desirous of a vacation, offered 
Mr. Person his office and all the fees received 
during his absence from town. This gave him 
five weeks' living, and in the meantime he 
located in a piece of land near the city and 
lived in a dugout. His wife was only 17 years 
old at this time, while he was 23, and here in 
their primitive home they passed through the 
intense excitement of the Indian troubles and 
the county seat war. Gradually Person built 
up a good practice and was on a fair way to- 
ward prosperity when the grasshopper 
plague, so common to that section, cleared the 
country of every living plant above ground. 
His clients, mostly farmers, were unable to 
pay their fees, so he was forced finally to 
abandon his home and farm and return to 
Howell. 

He was recorder of the latter city, 1876-77, 
and circuit court commissioner, 1876-78. Mr. 
Person has four children: Harlow Stafford, 
now in the Literary Department, University; 
Harry J., with the ISTational Biscuit Company, 
at Sioux City, Iowa, and May and Armand, 
at home. He is a Mason, having taken all 
degrees to Knight Templar. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



225 



PINGREE, HON. HAZEN S. No man in 

the country has been more talked about during 
the past few years than has Gov. Pingree. 
Born in Denmark, Maine, August 30th, 1840, 
the son of Jasper and Adeline (Bryant) Pin- 
gr(5e, his early education did not extend beyond 
his fourteenth year. His father was a farmer 
and a descendent of Moses Pingree, who came 
from England in 1640, and settled in Ipswich, 
Mass. His great-grandfather was a soldier in 
the War of the Revolution, his grandfather in 
the War of 1§12, and himself in the Civil 
War, and he treasures as mementos, a musket 
carried by each in the service. At the age of 
fourteen he secured work in a cotton factory at 
Saco, Me., and in 1860 he went to work in a 
shoe factory at Hopkinton, Mass. He was thus 
employed in 1862 when he enlisted in a regi- 
ment of artillery and served until the close of 
the war. His service was with the Army of 
the Potomac, in which he participated in a 
dozen or more battles. He was, with a num- 
ber of his comrades, taken prisoner by Mosby, 
May 25th, 1864, and held for some five months 
at different southern prisons. Soon after his 
muster out in August, 1865, he came to De- 
troit and worked for a time as an employee in a 
shoe factory. In December, 1866, the shoe 
manufacturing firm of Pingree & Smith was 
formed with a capital of e$ 1,3 60. 00. They 
purchased a small plant and with eight hands 
employed they closed the first year's business 
with an output of some $20,000. The con- 
cern has become the most extensive of its kind 
in the west, latterly employing over 700 
hands, with an output of about one million dol- 
lars annually. 

It is in his political career, however, that 
Gov. Pingree has become best known. In 
1889 his political friends were at sea for a 
candidate for mayor of Detroit, and upon their 
earnest solicitation, he accepted the nomina- 
tion. He was elected by a decisive vote and 
re-elected for the three succeeding terms, at 
his last election his majority exceeding the 
entire vote received by his competitor. He 
was a candidate for the Republican nomina- 
tion for Governor in 1892 and again in 1894, 
but the nomination came to him readily in 




HON. HAZEN S. PINOREE. 

1896, when he was elected by a majority over 
all others, of 66,000, leading his colleagues 
on the Republican ticket by an average of over 
20,000, and in his home county (Wayne) by 
about 4,000. He was re-elected in 1898. 

Gov. Pingree's distinguishing traits as an 
official, are his originality, his aggressiveness 
and his tenacity, with a tendency towards state 
socialism or the civil ownership or control of 
public utilities. As Mayor of Detroit he gave 
an impulse to public improvement, especially 
in the way of paving, secured the establish- 
ment of the public lighting plant, and com- 
batted what he regarded as unjustifiable pre- 
tensions on the part, of the street railways. 
These measures gave him prominence through- 
out the state and led him to the governor's 
chair, where the same traits have inspired his 
action. A law for the local taxation of rail- 
roads was made inoperative by the Supreme 
Court decision. A law providing for a State 
Tax Commission is in operation and promisies 
good results. But Gov. Pingree'a ofBcial 
career cannot be reviewed here, for obvious 
reasons. Gov. Pingree occupies a fine mansion 
on Woodward avenue, in Detroit. Mrs. Pin- 
gree, to whom he was married iii 1872, was 
formerly Miss Frances A. Gilbert, of Mount 
Clemens. They have had three children, two 
daughters (the eldest deceased), and one attil, 
Hazen S. 



^6 



MEN GF PEOGRESS. 




MARK NORRIS. 

NORKIS, MARK. The name of Norris 
was in the early days a familiar one in Eastern 
Michigan, and during later years has become 
equally so in the west. Mark Norris, grand- 
father of the present, located at Ypsilanti in 
1827 and was for many years prominent in 
business, social and political life. The family 
are in direct descent from Nicholas Norris, 
who came to America from England in 1640. 
A son of the elder Mark Norris, Lyman De- 
catur Norris, father of the present Mark, was 
for many years a prominent attorney in 
Ypsilanti, and during his residence there was 
elected to and served a term in the State Sen- 
ate, and was also a member of the Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1867. He left a lucra- 
tive practice at Ypsilanti, removing to Grand 
Rapids, then a small town, comparatively, but 
with the expressed conviction on his part that 
it was destined to become the second city of 
Michigan, a prediction which he lived to see. 
He acquired an extensive practice in western 
Michigan and, was at one time candidate on 
the Democratic ticket for Judge of the Su- 
preme Court. The wife of Mr. Norris and 
mother of the present Mark, was Lucy Ai 
Whittlesey, a native of Connecticut, and 
direct descendant of Rev. John Cotton. 



The present Mark Norris is a member of 
the law firm of Crane, Norris & Stevens, of 
Grand Rapids, and was born at Ypsilanti July 
28th, 1857. His education was elaborate, 
and it may be said finished, so far as it could 
well be finished in the schools, embracing *the 
full course at the Ypsilanti Public Schools, 
two years (1871-1873) at the Yonkers Mili- 
tary Academy, at Yonkers, !N. Y., a prepara- 
tory college course at DeVeaux College, Sus- 
pension Bridge, 1^. Y., and a four years' liter- 
ary course at the university, from which he 
graduated in 1879, this being followed by a 
two years' law course, from which he gradu- 
ated in 1882, having previously, during his 
leisure months, for several years read law in 
the office of Xorris & TJhl, of Grand Rapids. 
He was admitted to practice upon examina- 
tion before the Supreme Court, April 14th, 
1882. He continued in the office of Norris 
& Uhl as assistant and partner imtil the disso- 
lution of the firm in 1887, when he became 
a partner with his father under the firm name 
of Norris & K^orris. This connection con- 
tinued until the death of the father in 1894, 
when Mr. Korris continued the practice alone 
for several years, until the formation of the 
present firm of Crane, Norris & Stevens. Mr. 
JS^orris has, during-his professional career, made 
a specialty of fire insurance law, and is called 
as counsel in fire insurance cases throughout 
the United States. He represented the pre- 
vailing defendant party in a case of national 
importance, the Chippewa Lumber Company 
vs. the Phoenix Insurance Company, reported 
in the 80th Michigan Reports, p. 116. He 
was for four years a member of the State 
Board of Law Examiners, to which he was 
appointed by Gov. Rich in 1895. He has 
business interests outside of his profession, in- 
cluding a directorate in the Grand Rapids 
Desk Company. In politics he ranks as a gold 
Democrat. He is a Mason, a member of the 
Alpha Delta Phi of the University of Michi- 
gan, and of the Sons of the American Revo- 
lution. 

* Miss Cornelia Abbott, daughter of Rev. 
Larmon W. Abbott, of Ridgefield, Conn., be- 
came Mrs. Norris in 1885. They have three 
children, Margaret A., Abbott L. and Cor- 
nelia. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



227 



MORSE, JUDGE ALLEN BENTON. 

Allen Benton Morse, attoraey-at-law, Ionia, 
Michigan, is one of the oldest residents of 
this state, having been bom in Otisco town- 
ship, Ionia county, January 7, 1839. He 
was the third white child and first boy bom 
iij that township. Mr. Morse is a direct de- 
scendant of old Puritan stock, tracing his 
ancestry back to Samuel Morse, who came 
from England. His father, John L. Morse, 
came to Michigan in 18*30, from Courtlandt 
county. New York, locating first in Oakland 
county and afterwards removing to Ionia 
county. The elder Morse was a member of 
the Michigan State Legislature 1846-47, and 
judge of Probate Court for Ionia county 11 
years. 

Allen B. Morse was educated at the dis- 
trict school near his father's farm, and when 
the gold excitement broke out, his father left 
for California, leaving his farm and six chil- 
dren, and all under the care of the mother. 
Allen, being the oldest, it devolved upon him 
to do all he could toward the maintenance 
of the family. He taught school, worked 
the farm and helped the neighbors, and did 
everything that would serve to bring in some 
money toward the family treasury. In the 
fall of 1859 he was given- his first good suit 
of clothes and sent to the Agricultural Col- 
lege at Lansing, where he remained two 
years and paid for his board by working on 
the farm at nine cents per hour. He then 
taught school one winter .and was a law stu- 
dent at the breaking out of the Civil War, 
when he enlisted, July 30, 1861, as a private 
in Co. B, 16th Michigan Infantry. For 
meritorious conduct he was commissioned 
first lieutenant in the 21st Michigan, be- 
came adjutant of said regiment, and served 
as assistant adjutant on the staff of Col. 
Frank T. Sherman, commanding a bri- 
gade in Sheridan's division. He lost his left 
arm at Mission Kidge November 25, 1863, 
and was mustered out of service September 
16, 1864. Returning to Ionia he commenced 
the reading of law in the office of W. B. 
Wells of that city and was admitted to the bar 




JUDGE ALLEN BENTON" MORSE. 



in Ionia by Judge Lewis S. Lovell, February 
28, 18G5. Mr. Wells then t(Xik him into 
partnership in March, 1865, and the partner- 
ship continued until 1880, when the firm be- 
came Morse, Wilson and Trowbridg*e, and 
remained such until Judge Morse took his 
seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of 
Michigan in October, 1886. 

In 1892 Judge Morse resigned his place 
on the bench and became the Democratic 
candidate for governor. He was defeated 
by John T. Rich, but as a reward for his 
party loyalty was appointed United States 
consul at Glasgow, Scotland, by President 
Cleveland. 

After serving four years. Judge Morse re- 
turned to Ionia and resumed his pratstice of 
law. 

He was first married in 1874, to Miss 
Frances Marion Van Allen, who died in 1884, 
In 1888 Miss Anna Babcock, of Ionia, became 
M rs. Morse. He has four children : Marion^ 
wife of E. M. Davis, of Ionia; Van Allen, in 
Des Moines, la.; Lucy C. and Dan K.> stu- 
dents. 

Judge Morse is a member of St, ViJdceflit 
Lodge, F. and A. M., of Glasgow, Scpttoti4. 
where he was raised while he Was tfii^ift 
States consul in that city^ 



228 



.MEN OF PKOGEESS. 




GEORGE WILrLrlS BEMENT. 

BEMENT, GEORGE WILLIS. George 
Willis Bement, secretary and treasurer of the 
E. Bement's Sons establishment for the mann- 
factiire of plows, stoves and agricultural im- 
plements, located at Lansing, Michigan, was 
bom at Fostoria, Ohio, November 9, 1850. 
When old enough he was feent to the public 
schools in his native citv, and when 15 years 
of age, took two terms at the Fostoria 
Academy under William C. Turner, and later 
tcK)k a special course in Greek and Latin 
under a private teacher. 

From his twelfth to his seventeenth year he 
spent his summer vacations working in his 
father's foundry and learning the trade of a 
moulder, an art in which he became very pro- 
ficient, and which served him well in after 
years. His earnings during this period of his 
career amounted to about $3 a week. 

The winter of his eighteenth year found 
him engaged in the profession of school 
teacher, having in charge about forty scholars 
in a district school some six miles from Fos- 
toria. The following spring he turned his 
attention to the trade he had learned in his 
father's foundry, and started out as a 
moulder. He secured his first work in this 



line with the firm of Loomis & Nyman, at 
Tifiin, Ohio, in the manufacture of plows and 
machinery. 

As young Bement had given his father 
all the money he had earned at school teach- 
ing, in his new career he was obliged to 
hustle for himself. After remaining about 
three months in the employ of Loomis 
& Nyman, went to Toledo, where shortly 
afterwards his brother joined him. The 
brothers worked together for a while in 
Toledo, and finally decided to come to Michi- 
gan. They did so, and visited a number 
of towns in this state, Monroe, Adrian, Te- 
cumseh, Albion and Battle Creek. He found 
work with the firm of Nichols, Shepherd & 
Company, of the latter place, where being 
considered a good moulder, he earned $13.50 
a week, although only nineteen years of age. 
Kemaining with the firm until September, he 
returned to Fostoria, and accepted the position 
of cashier in the store of ex-Governor Charles 
Foster. Mr. Bement stayed with Mr. Foster 
until November, 1870, and that fall joined his 
father and brother in the foundry they had 
established in Lansing. 

The history of the success of this firm has 
been told in these pages. While the elder 
brother and the father looked after the busi- 
ness end of the concern, G. W. Bement dec- 
orated the plow beams during the day, and at 
night attended to the books and the general 
office work. Mr. Bement, in 1893, was made 
a member of and treasurer of the board of con- 
trol of the Michigan School for Blind, in 
which capacity he served six years, and in 
January, 1899, was re-appointed by Governor 
Pingi'ee to serve six years longer. He is a 
Kepublican in politics, and was a member of 
the city council of Lansing in 1895-97 and 
'99. He was also a member of the Lansing 
Board of Education for nine years, and in 
1896 was one of the presidential electors of 
Michigan, from the Sixth Congressional Dis- . 
trict. 

His marriage took place on June 13, 1872, 
to Miss Rillie Finsthwait. They have two 
children, Howard Bement and Frank H. Be- 
ment.* Mr. Bement is a Mason and Knights 
Templar. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



229 



CLAEAGE, CHARLES. Mr. Clarage is 

of English and New England descent, his 
father, Thomas Clarage (Claridge) having 
been born in England and his mother, Eliza- 
beth M. Hooker, being a native of Vermont. 
Charles Clarage was born in Kalamazoo, Mich- 
igan, August 4th, 1860. Thomas Clarage was 
junior member of the old firm of Bird & Clar- 
age, founders and machinists at Kalamazoo. 
He died in 1895. Charles attended the public 
schools of Kalamazoo until his fourteenth 
year, when his educational course was inter- 
mitted by three years in business life, two* 
years as clerk in a news and stationery store, 
and one year as clerk in the Kalamazoo post- 
office. In 1877 he entered the Baptist College 
at Kalamazoo, and was a student therein dur- 
ing the two following years. His college 
course was followed by a further service of 
three years in the Kalamazoo postoffice and 
railway mail service. In 1882 he became in- 
terested in the Bird Windmill Co., of Kala- 
mazoo, being secretary of the company and 
afterwards represented its interests at Lincoln, 
i!^ebraska, for one year. Returning to Kala- 
mazoo in 1885, he purchased the half interest 
of Mr. C. H. Bird in the firm of Bird & Clar- 
age, and the business thereafter took on the 
style of Thos. Clarage & Son. For two or 
three years before his death, Thomas Clarage 
practically retired from the active manage- 
ment of the business, to which the son natur- 
ally succeeded, and he has been the active 
manager for the past seven years. The 
foundations of a business so well laid by the 
father have been improved upon and added to 
by the son, who continues the business under 
the former well known name and style. The 
working force has been fully doubled during 
the past five years and the capacity of the 
plant increased in the same proportion, to 
enable them to handle the rapidly increasing 
business. The orders were formerly largely 
from Kalamazoo and immediate vicinity, and 
while these are steadily on the increase, Indi- 
ana and Illinois are now supplying a large 
amount of their business. Detroit also has 




CHARLES CLARAGE. 

come to the front with a rapidly increasing 
demand and for some years past, large con- 
tracts have been secured with some of Detroit's 
best known business houses. 

Mr. Clarage is one of Kalamazoo's young 
hustlers, his concern being one of the few 
which continued during the hard times period, 
without being compelled to shut down or to 
reduce the working force or cut down their 
wages. He kept his men busy on full time 
during the whole period of the industrial de- 
pression. 

Miss Ella M. Southworth, daughter of Ran- 
dall W. Southworth, of Kalamazoo, became 
Mrs. Clarage, October 15th, 1884. They have 
one son, Harry Randall Clarage, eleven years 
of age. In his religious connections, Mr. Clar- 
age is a Presbyterian. His society connections 
are Masonic, including Kalamazoo Command- 
ery. Knights Templar. He is also a member of 
Michigan Sovereign Consistory of Detroit, 
He is also an enthusiastic wheelman and 
through his efforts and under his personal 
direction was constructed thirteen miles « of 
cycle path, one of the best in the state, to Qtlll 
Lake, which has been a source of much I>l6a8^ 
ure to Kalamazoo wheelmen. 



230 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




CHARLES BRIGGS. 



BRIGGS, CHARLES. Calumet's lead- 
ing merchant, Charles Briggs, proprietor of 
the Hecla store in that city, and president of 
the Merchants & Miners' Bank of Calumet, 
since its organization in 1873, was born 
iS[ovember 12, 1837, in Cincinnatus, Cortland 
county, New York state. His father, Qr. 
Isaac Briggs, a physician, was bom in Ply- 
mouth, Massachusetts, his father's father and 
grandfather were Congregational ministers in 
Massachusetts. Mr. Briggs is a descendant of 
the old Allerton family of Massachusetts. 

Young Briggs attended the district schools 
of Dryden, where his family moved when he 
was a child, and when he became 8 years of 
age he was sent to the Homer Academy at 
Homer, New York, where he studied for four 
years. His uncle was at that time operating 
a general store at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 
so when he reached his fourteenth year his 
uncle sent for him and gave him a position as 
clerk in the store. He remained in this posi- 
tion for nine years, and at the end of that time 
he was offered and accepted a position as 
cashier in the Lake Geneva Bank. After a 



year in this capacity he realized the opportuni- 
ties offered in the Upper Peninsula of Michi- 
gan for a young and energetic man, so he came 
to this state and secured a position as book- 
keeper in the general store of S. D. l^orth & 
Co. He had been saving his money, and the 
following year became a partner in the con- 
cern under the firm name of North & Briggs 
at Rockland, Ontonagon County. The new 
firm met with success, and the next year 
branched out and established a store at the 
^ Quincy mine at Hancock, Michigan, and in 
1868 started a store at Calumet, closing the 
Rockland store. Two years after the Calumet 
venture another store was established at Lake 
Linden. In 1876 the company dissolved, Mr. 
Briggs taking the store at Calumet and Mr. 
N'orth the one at the Quincy mine. The silent 
partner, William Harris, took the Lake Lin- 
den branch. Mr. Briggs then associated with 
him H. K. Cole, under the firm name of 
Briggs & Cole, and enlarged the Hecla store 
at Calumet to accommodate the increasing 
business. This partnership was dissolved in 
1884j when Mr. Cole withdrew from the firm, 
leaving Mr. Briggs sole proprietor. 

Mr. Briggs has been a trustee of the school 
district of Calumet township for nineteen 
years. In 1891, he was made president of the 
board, and as such he acted until 1895. He 
became secretary in 1895. District ISTo. 1 is 
without doubt the largest township school dis- 
trict in the United States, having 6,798 
scholars enrolled in 1898, and fourteen school 
buildings, a general high school and a staff of 
101 teachers. 

• Mr. Briggs married in 1865, Miss Sarah 
E. Hanna, at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. His • 
only son, Charles Edwin Briggs, is a sur- 
geon at the Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, 
Ohio. Mr. Briggs is president of the E. F. 
Sutton Company, of Lake Linden, Michigan, 
and in 1879-80 was a member of the Michigan 
Legislature. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



231 



CEOZE, HON. JOSEPH. Houghton's 
mayor, Hon. Joseph Croze, has an interest- 
ing histor}^, one that is replete with incidents 
of hardships and trials, for in his early career 
he found himself in an alien land, with 
strangers surrounding him, whose language 
he had to learn in order that he might find a 
position above that of a day laborer. Joseph 
Croze was born near St. Henri de Mascouche, 
Province of Quebec, February 8, 1841. His 
father was Pierre Laurent Croze, a farmer 
near Montreal, Canada, and the original 
founders of the family came from France, in 
1762. 

Joseph Croze attended the parish schools 
near his home during the winter months when 
there was no work that required his assistance 
on the farm, and all summer long labored as 
a farm hand. Up to the time he was 18 years 
of age, he made about $18 a month at this 
work, and then not wishing to follow in his 
father's vocation he left home and came to, 
Michigan in search of employment. 

He arrived at Eagle River, Michigan, May 
24, 1859, with $2.00 in cash to -pay his way 
until he could find work. Even the clothes 
he wore at that time were unpaid for. 
He found employment as a surface man at 
the Cliff copper mine, working for $24 a 
month, and paying $8 for his board. 
He found great difficulty in getting along 
with his limited knowledge of the English 
language, but after a while he managed to 
pick up sufficient to enable him to converse 
with his fellow-workmen. Six months later* 
he drove a mule team, hauling wood to the 
mine. The next two years he worked as a 
chopper, getting out wood for the Garden City 
mine, now a part of the Phoenix Mining 
Company's property. Every month out of 
his meager wages he managed to save and 
send home $10, which left him $16 for his 



own expenses. A year later he was made 
timekeeper for the company and assistant 
surface boss. He left this position after ten 
or twelve months to become clerk in 
Wright's Hotel at Eagle Eiver, where he 
remained mitil June 1, 1869, an4 went to 
Houghton, Michigan, where he accepted a 
position as clerk in the general store of Smith 
& Harris of that place, now the Graham Pope 
store. He remained with this firm for eight 
years, and his wages were advanced every 
year. By dint of constant study and long 
experience he soon became an excellent busi- 
ness man, and saved his money with a -view 
of starting in business for himself should 
opportunity offer. 

In 1873 he invested his savings of $2,000 
in an undivided half interest in a towing tug 
and four scows, and after three years he had 
made enough to enable him to buy out his 
partner's share in the concern, and became 
sole proprietor of the outfit. Business in- 
creased rapidly, and in 1877 he resigned his 
position in the employ of Smith & Harris, in 
order to devote his entire time and attention 
to the towing business. Since that time he 
has built up the business, and now owns sev- 
eral large tugs and drydocks and does a large 
amount of ship repairing. 

In 1897 he was 'appointed to fill the vacant 
office of mayor of Houghton, and he was 
elected again to this office in 1898. He is 
director of the School Board of District No. 2, 
East Houghton, and has been identified with 
that body for over eight years. He was alder- 
man during the years 1896-97. He married in 
1869, Miss Johanna Sullivan at Eagle Rirer, 
and has nine children. Mr* Croze is a stock- 
holder in the Peninsular Electric light & 
Power Company of Houghton County, and a^t 
extensive holder of real estate. 



^i: 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




ELBRIDGE GERRY BROWN. 

BROWN, ELBRIDGE GERRY. El- 
bridge Gerry Brown, supply clerk for the 
Calumet & Hecla Mine, and a resident of 
Calumet, Michigan, is the son of Manly 
Brown, who was born in Corinth, Orange 
county, Vermont, served in the war of 1812, 
after which he settled near Batavia, Genesee 
county, New York, married Betsey Moulton, 
who was born in Minden, Massachusetts, and 
whose father, Royal Moulton, ' settled in the 
town of Batavia, New York, in 1808. 

Elbridge G. Brown was born May 14, 
1840, at Cheektowaga, New York, where his 
father operated a small farm, and his educa- 
tion was commenced in the district school near 
his home, where he was privileged to attend 
during the winter terms. The boy earned his 
first money as a switch tender on the Buffalo 
& Ooehoi^ton Valley Railroad, the same road- 
bed now owned by the West Shore Railroad 
Co., working for four months at 50 cents per 
diem, when only 12 years of age. He then 
attended two terms at the Genesee Seminary, 
situated at Alexander, Genesee county. New 
York, after which he became a teacher in a 
district school two miles from his home, at a 



salary of $18 a month. In August, 18G2, 
young Brown enlisted in the 50th New York 
regiment, which had been assigned to the en- 
gineer's corps, and as such he served through 
the war, being clerk of his company when he 
was discharged in 1865 at the close of the war. 
After leaving the army he took up the 
study of telegraphy, and after perfecting 
himself in that science failed to secure a 
position. In 1867 he found work handling 
freight for the Merchants' Union Express 
Company at Cleveland, Ohio. He remained 
at this employment for nine months and then 
became a messenger for the same company 
traveling between Cleveland and Millers- 
burg, Ohio. After six months in this branch 
. of the work he was transferred to Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, with the Union Express Com- 
pany of that city, which was later absorbed 
by the American Express Company. During 
this change, he went to work again as a por- 
ter with the new company, and a month later 
was made bill clerk, remaining such until the 
Adams Express Company gathered in the sys- 
tem, when he was made money order clerk, 
holding that position until 1874. He then 
went to Lake Superior, to accept employment 
with the Sturgeon River Lumber Company of 
Hancock, Michigan, which he resigned in 
1880 to fill a position as supply clerk for the 
Hecla mine. In 1888 he was made supply 
clerk for the Calumet & Hecla Mining Com- 
pany, and has held that position since then. 

Mr. Brown has been married twice. His 
first wife was Miss Elizabeth Lombard, of 
Tacutneyville, Vermont, who died in 1889. 
In 1893 Miss Julia Watkins, of Lapeer, be- 
came Mrs. E. G. Brown. 

Mr. Brown is a Democrat, and was made a 
member of the board of control of the Michi- 
gan College of Mines at Houghton, Michi- 
gan, in 1897; his term will expire in 1903. 

He is a Mason, and a member of Montrose 
Commandery, Knights Templar, of Calumet, 
and Saladin Temple, K'obles of the Mystic 
Shrine, of Grand Rapids. He was formerly 
chaplain vud adjutant of the Grand Army 
of the Republic Post of Calumet. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



233 



OKK, GEORGE HENRY. Mr. Orr's 
grandfather came originally from the State of 
Vermont, and his father operated a farm in 
Steuben county, N. Y., where George Henry 
was born May 17, 1842. The boy attended a 
district school and later a graded school at 
Academy Corners, Pa., after leaving which 
he worked Avith his father as a farm hand. 

When he was 16 years of age he took a 
contract getting out stave and tie timber, but 
what money he made at this he turned in 
toward the support of his family. In 1862 he 
enlisted as a private in Company F, One 
Hundred and Seventh New York Volunteer 
Infantry and was discharged and sent home 
four months later on account of rheumatism 
contracted while he was in service. Borrow- 
ing $125, young Orr then went into the retail 
meat and provision business and continued 
for five years with good success. His uncle 
was in the business with him and the firm 
bought and shipped stock to New York City. 
In 1868 George bought out his uncle's inter- 
ests and the next three years operated on his 
OAvn account, buying and selling live stock 
and managing the retail department for three 
years and then selling out on account of poor 
business. In the spring of 1871 he took 
wliat money he had and could borrow and 
started in getting out logs for Brooks & Gil- 
lett, of Addison, New York.. In the spring 
of 1873 he moved his outfit to Manistique, 
Michigan, and took a contract putting in logs 
for the Chicago Lumbering Company of that 
place. He met Avith sufficient success the first 
year to enable him to pay off the mortgage on 
his plant, and his debts in New York. He 
then bought a larger outfit, working as a job- 
ber until 1878, when he bought an interest in 
the Chicago Lumbering Company, and be- 
came superintendent of the logging operations 
conducted by them. He occupies this same 
position today. The Chicago Lumbering 
Company cuts about 75,000,000 feet of lum- 
ber per year. 




GEORGE HENRY ORR. 



Mr. Orr is also superintendent of The Wes- 
ton Lumber Company's lumbering operations 
at Manistique. 

His success has been due to his own personal 
efforts, his perseverance and energy. He has 
not lost during the past twenty-eight years 
over forty days for vacations and illness. 

Mr. Orr is president of the State Bank at 
Manistique, vice-president of the White Mar- 
ble Lime Company, manager of the Manis- 
tique & iSTorthwestern Railroad and a director 
in the Chicago Lumbering Company. He is 
also vice-president and idirector in the Manis- 
tique Electric Light & Power Company. He 
was first president of the village of Manis- 
tique, county treasurer for four yfears and 
director of schools for ten years. In politics 
he is a Republican. 

Mr. Orr married Miss Ellen S. Eddy at 
Greene, IST. Y., in 1863, and his only survitii^ 
child, Charles Orr, is a druggist at Manistique. 
He is a Royal Arch Mason, and is a inembei* 
of the Board of Trustees of the Presby^riaiat 
Church at Manistique. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




NORRIS OSCAR GRISWOLD. 

GRISWOLD, NORRIS OSCAR. No 
class of men has contributed more to the poli- 
tical, military, industrial and intellectual his- 
tory of the country than the so-called Scotch- 
Irish. They gave tone to the early settle- 
ments in portions of Pennsylvania, in Virginia 
and the Carolinas, and their descendants are 
found in the States to the west of those named. 
Their energy is well exemplified in the sub- 
ject of the present sketch. Mr. Griswold was 
born on a farm at West Mecca, Trumbull 
County, Ohio, in 1850, and is of Scotch-Irish 
extraction. He was one of ten children and 
his education up to the age of fourteen was 
acquired at the country school, with a few 
terms at a select school at Baconsburg, Ohio. 
At the age of fifteen (1865) he quitted home 
and started out to make his own way in the 
world. His first halt was at Niles, O., where 
he worked for a time as a carpenter's appren- 
tice. Later he was employed in a lumber yard 
at Bloomfield, O. The newer portions of 
Michigan seemed then an inviting field, and " 
with a companion he landed at Greenville, 
March 19th, 1869, at once securing employ- 
ment as a farm hand on the oak openings in 



Eureka township. Not satisfied with his lim- 
ited education he went to Greenville and se- 
cured a place to work for his board, while at- 
tending the village school. With no means, 
and 'no opportunity to earn any, he acted as 
janitor for the school, and built the sidewalks 
around the school house to pay his tuition. 
During the summer vacation he worked with 
the fence gang along the newly built railroad, 
and earned money enough to carry him 
through the fall term of school. The next 
summer found him in the harvest field, and at 
the age of twenty-one he was employed to 
teach a district school four miles from Green- 
ville. He attended the ensuing spring term 
of school at Greenville, and the same year was 
appointed superintendent of schools at Stan- 
ton, which position he held one year. His 
ambition being the law, he pursued a course 
of private study while at Stanton, and in 1872 
he returned to Greenville and entered the law 
office of Ellsworth & Lewis. In the fall of 
1874 he was admitted to practice, and coup- 
ling the insurance business with that of law, 
he hung out his shingle at Greenville. He 
soon quit insurance, however, and gave his 
whole time to practice, and from that time 
on has been a successful and well-known prac- 
titioner in all the state courts. 

Mr. Griswold served three consecutive 
terms as circuit court commissioner for Mont- 
calm county, having been first elected in 1874. 
From this position he was directly advanced 
to the more responsible office of judge of pro- 
bate. He was for several years city attorney 
of the city of Stanton, and has held that office 
in Greenville as well as served on the com- 
mon council of the city, and was for many 
years a member of the Board of Education. 
He is a Mason of the Royal Arch Chapter and 
of the Auxiliary Order of the Eastern Star, 
and is a member of the Knights of Pythias, of 
the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and 
of the Maccabees. 

He is a Republican in politics, but quit his 
party in 1896 upon the money question. 

Mrs. Griswold was formerly Miss Franc A. 
Gooding, to whom Mr. Griswold was mar- 
ried May 11, 1875. She is a native of West 
Henrietta, K". Y., and a graduate of Fairfield 
Seminary, in the class of 1872. They have 
three children. Harper H., a law student; 
Hudson B. and Helen, aged respectively 19. 
16 and 7 years. 



IIISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



235 



GARFIELD, CHARLES WILLIAM. 
Charles William Garfield was born in Wau- 
watosa, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, March 
14, 1848. His father, Samuel M. Garfield, ^ 
having emigrated from Genesee County, New 
York, about 1840. His mother, Harriet E. 
Brown, was bom in New Hampshire, very 
near the original home of the Garfield family. 
The Garfields moved from Wisconsin to 
Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1858, settling 
upon Burton Farm, just south of the city. 

The subject of our sketch worked upon the 
farm summers, attended school during the 
winters, practically completing the High 
School course when he had reached the age 
of 18. He taught school several years in his 
own and adjoining districts, and entered the 
State Agricultural College as a sophomore in 
1868. He paid his expenses in College 
largely by teaching school, completing the 
course in 1870. 

Owing to greatly impaired health, his plan 
of life was entirely changed, and he entered 
horticulture as an occupation, spending a year 
as an apprentice with the firm of Storrs & 
Harrison, Painesville, Ohio. His first busi- 
ness enterprise was in growing nursery stock, 
which proved to be a disaster, owing to the 
unprecedented severity of the winter of 
1872-3, which practically destroyed his stock, 
leaving him in debt for quite a large amount. 
He was offered a position of foreman of the 
gardens at the Agricultural College, on a 
small salary^ which he accepted, and soon 
thereafter was elected secretary of the State 
Horticultural Society. To these two branches 
of labor was added a third, the management 
of the Farm Department of the Detroit Free 
Press. These positions he held until the death 
of his father, after which he returned to the 
old homestead in the autumn of 1877, which 
he made his permanent home. He continued 
as secretary of the State Horticultural Society 
until 1885, when failing health compelled him 
to retire from this work. During these years 
many temptations to enter the educational 
field were presented, but he was loyal to his 
chosen occupation of horticulture, and be- 
came an authority upon matters of fruit grow- 
ing and gardening. He was secretary of the 
American Pomological Society for some 
years, but was compelled to retire from this 
work on account of his health. He is still 
chairman of the executive committee of this 
organization. For twelve years he was a mem- 
ber of the governing board of the State Agri- 
cultural College, and has been prominently 
identified with many organizations devoted to 




CHARLES WILLIAM GaKFIELD. 

rural affairs in his own state, and in the na- 
tion. At the date of this writing he is presi- 
dent of the Grand Rapids Savings Bank, and 
director in a number of business organiza- 
tions at Grand Rapids. He was identified 
Avith the movement which resulted in the 
magnificent organization of Farmers' Insti- 
tutes in the state. He was one of the leading 
spirits in the organization of the American 
Park and Outdoor Art Association. Under 
a recent enactment of the Michigan Legisla- 
ture he was appointed a member of the Michi- 
gan Forestry Commission, and was subse- 
quently elected president of the Commission. 
As a member of the Legislature of 1881 he 
rendered valuable service in connection with 
enactments in the interests of rural affairs, 
and was the originator of Arbor Day, as now 
celebrated in this state. 

His wife is of Scotch parentage, and was 
the daughter of Mr. Thomas Smith, who in- 
stalled the gas system in Grand Rapids at an 
early day, mid was identified with the devel- 
opment of the city as a prominent factor.- 

Burton Farm, the home of Mr. Garfield, 
is one of the most attractive places in the 
suburbs of Grand Rapids, and is especially 
noted for its wide range of tree growth,^ It h 
a successful fruit and truck farm. Mr> Q:«f^ 
field's tastes do. not run to making idQiieyi llf^ 
rather to the development of conditioiyi tib|tl: 
add to the pleasure of rural life,, aiid j^e iih 
tractiveness of his city. 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




WILLIAM GEORGE HOWARD. 

HOWARD, AVILLTAM GEOEGE. Mr. 
Howard is a native of Michigan, having been 
born near Edwardsburg, in Cass county, in 
1846. He is a contradiction of the adage that 
a prophet is without honor in his own coun- 
try, as a high measure of professional success 
has attended hiui in the near neighborhood of 
the place of his birth. He attended the neigh- 
borhood school until 15 years old, and then 
the village scliool at Edwardsburg for one 
year. Was a student at Olivet College in 
1863-65, entering Kalamazoo College in the 
spring of 1865 and graduating in 1867, hav- 
ing taken the course. He entered the law 
office of Balch, Smiley & Balch, of Kalama- 
zoo, where he read law for tw^o years, in con- 
nection with a term in the Law Department 
of the University, and was admitted to prac- 
tice in Kalamazoo, October, 1869. His first 
active practice was in Dowagiac, Avhere he 
formed a connection with James Sullivan, as 
Sullivan & Howard, in February, 1870, so 
continuing for three years. In the Fall of 
1870 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for 
Cass County and was elected City Treasurer 
of Dowagiac in 1871. The field at Dowagiac 
not proving as promising as he had hoped, he 



returned to Kalamazoo in June, 1873, becom- 
ing a partner in the newly-formed law firm 
of Balch, How^ard & Balch. This connec- 
tion continued until 1878, when the firm be- 
came Brown, Howard & lioos. The senior 
of the firm, Arthur S. Brown, withdrew^ a 
year later, and from 1879 to 1897 the firm 
was Howard & Boos, and in the latter year 
became Howard, Koos & Howard, by the ad- 
mission of Henry C, a son of William G. 

Mr. Howard stands at the head of the bar 
in Western Michigan and enjoys a national 
reputation as a patent lawyer. He was for 
years the successful attorney in the celebrated 
Spring Tooth Harrow litigation, which led 
him to a close study of the patent laws, by 
which he acquired a special aptness in the 
handling of patent litigation. He owns the 
farm in Cass county on which he was born, 
and attends to its management, spending his 
vacations there. He is the present mayor of 
the city of Kalamazoo, and was a member of 
the Kalamazoo Board of Education for six 
years, and was for four years its treasurer. 
He is one of the executors of the Beckwith 
estate, manufacturers of Bound Oak stoves 
and ranges at Dowagiac; vice-president and 
director of the Home Savings Bank of Kala- 
mazoo, a director in the South Side Improve- 
ment Company, and a stockholder in the Kala- 
mazoo Corset Company and the Kalamazoo 
Ice Company. He has been attorney for and 
trustee of Kalamazoo College since 1888, and 
is the general attorney for the ^^International 
Congress,'' a secret fraternal society, with 
headquarters at Dowagiac, of which he is a 
member. He is also a member of the Odd- 
fellow^s, of the United W^^rkmen, of the Na- 
tional Union and has been president of the 
Kalamazoo Club. In 1897 he was presented 
and urged by the delegates to the Democratic 
State Convention from Southwestern Michi- 
gan, for nomination as Judge of the Supreme 
Court. His father, George T., was from 
Delaware, as was also his mother, whose 
maiden name was Eliza Parsons. They set- 
tled in Cass county in 1845. Mr. Howard 
was married in 1870 to Miss Lizzie E. Cooper, 
daughter of Charles Cooper, of White Pigeon, 
Michigan. They have two sons, Henry C, 
previously mentioned, and John A., travelling 
salesman for the Eound Oak Stove Company. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



237 



JTJDD, GEOEGE EDWIN. Mr. Judd 
was born March 23rd, 1838, at South Hadley, 
Mass. His father, Samuel, and all the family 
on his father's side, were thoroughbred Yan- 
kees and were bom on one spot in the old 
Bay State. His mother, who was Julia Ann 
Swaine, is also of the old Yankee families of 
that state. In 1852 the parents of George E. 
emigrated to Michigan, settling in Grand 
Rapids. The young man remained at the old 
place until they could locate a home in the 
then almost unexplored Jforthwest Territory, 
and he did the best he could, working on a 
farm at eight dollars per month. He followed 
his parents to Michigan late in the year and 
found employment as drayman with the old 
firm of Martin Bros. He then went to Lamont 
as clerk in a general store, remaining two 
years. Returning to Grand Rapids, he en- 
tered the store of Fox & Company, as clerk, 
but sickness compelled him to leave this posi- 
tion, and later he went with Church, Judd & 
Co., butchers. At the age of nineteen he en- 
gaged in business with Thomas Martin, this 
partnership being subsequently merged in the 
firm of Judd Brothers, w^hich continued until 
the war broke out. The firm then closed their 
establishment, the partners enlisting in Co. A, 
Third Michigan Infantry, of which one 
brother, S. A. Judd, was captain. George E. 
was elected sargeant, and the 10th of June, 

1861, Avas mustered into service and left for 
Potomac. In October, 1861, he was commis- 
sioned first lieutenant, and at the Battle of 
Fair Oaks, May 31st, 1862, his brother was 
killed and he himself had his left arm shat- 
tered, and it was later amputated at the 
shoulder. He was brought to Washington, 
and in four weeks he returned to Grand Rap- 
ids, having been made a captain, and put on 
recruiting service. He was made inspector in 
1863 on the provost marshal staff, where he 
remained one year. He was then relieved 
from the third regiment and sent to Daven- 
port, la., in charge of the Sioux Indians, held 
as prisoners of war for the Sioux massacre of 

1862. In January, 1866, he was ordered 
south. He served during the days of the re- 




GEORGE EDWIN JUDD. 

construction, and in 1869 was placed on special 
duty in Michigan. In August, 1868, Col. 
Judd was mustered out of the volunteer ser- 
\dce, with the rank of captain, and was mus- 
tered into the Forty-fifth Infantry of the regu- 
lar army, as second lieutenant, serving until 
1860. In May, 1870, he retired on full pay, 
with the rank of captain, and has since resided 
in Grand Rapids. March 1st, 1898, he wa8 
elected commandant of the Michigan Soldiers' 
Home, with the rank of colonel. 

On September 25th, 1858, Col. Judd mar- 
ried Lucinda, daughter of Henry Leach, of 
Grand Rapids, and a son, George H., aged 39, 
is the result of this marriage. The first Mrs. 
Judd died on June 25th, 1887. In 1889, Miss 
Nellie Post, of Grand Rapids, became Mrs. 
Judd, and one son, Edwin, aged ten years, has 
been born to them. 

Col. Judd was Deputy United States Mar- 
shal for the Eastern District of Michigan 
from 1890-94, he was a member of the Michi- 
gan House of Representatives in 1888-9, dur- 
ing which time he was chairman of the eom^ 
mittee of the Soldiers' Home, and ^ixerted 
much energj^ to build up that institutioii. He 
is a member of Custet Post, No. 5, G« A. SU> 
and has been its commander. He is 6liM>'ft^ 
member of the Loyall^ipon and Pytlbifiu^ 



m 



MEN OF PROGEESS. 




HON. ANI>REW CHARLES STEPHENSON. 

STEPHENSON, HON. ANDREW 
CHARLES. Menominee boasts of the best 
county system of roads in the state of Michi- 
gan, in the 60 miles of stone road now ex- 
tending out from the city of Menominee. 
Andrew Charles Stephenson was the chair- 
man of tlie road committee when on the 
Board of County Commissioners of Menom- 
inee county, and superintended the building' 
of this beautiful road. He is .a Republican 
and was Mayor of the city of Menominee, 
where he now lives, in 1884 and 1885, and 
since 1885 has been alderman. 

AndreAv Charles Stephenson was bom in 
Charleton county. New Brunswick, April 10, 
1843. When he was old enough to go to 
school he attended those in the district until 
he was large enough to go to work, and then 
he was given a job driving a team. He had 
on^ winter term at school when he was 14 
years of age, and that completed his educa- 
tion. Thtring the summer months, the boy 
worked on the farm and during the winter as- 
sisted his father, Robert Stephenson, in his 
logging operations. He was not paid anything 
for his ser^-ices until he was 22 years old, 
when his fsther gave him just enough mojiey 



to pay his fare to Menominee, Michigan, where 
some of his relatives were then engaged in 
the lumber business. He arrived at Menom- 
inee April 15, 1865, and later joined an uncle 
in that town. He secured work driving a 
team in a logging camp at $40 a month dur- 
ing the fall for Ludington, Wells & Van 
Schaick Company, of Menominee, and he has 
been with that company ever since. In 1868 
he was made a foreman, and later in the same 
year he was placed in charge of the company's 
logging interests in the woods. In 1871 he 
was made superintendent of logging opera- 
tions for the Ludington, Wells, Van Schaik 
Company, and he is still in that position to- 
day. He has not lost one day through sick- 
ness, and has made a valuable superintendent. 
Since he has been connected with this com- 
pany over eight hundred million feet of lum- 
ber have been cut, and a force of from 300 to 
700 men are employed under Mr. Stephenson 
in his department. 

For the past twelve years Mr. Stephenson 
has held a one-third interest in the firm of F. 
M. Stephenson, engaged in very extensive 
logging operations. 

In 1867 he married his first wife, Miss 
Rhoda Parent, in New Brunswick, and her 
death occurred in 1872. In 1874 he married 
Mrs. Philina Armstrong, of Houlton, Maine. 

He has four children, Sarah is the Avife of 
John Stevens, lumber inspector at Menom- 
inee, Mich. ; and Maud, Mamie and Ferdinand 
are attending school in that city. 

Mr. Stephenson is well known and liked 
throughout the county in which he has taken 
such an active part as a progressive factor, 
and his friends know him better as "Andy." 
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and 
belong-s to Menominee Commandery, No. 35, 
of the Knights Templar, and the Nobles of 
the Mystic Shrine of Ahmed Temple, Mar- 
quette/ Michigan. He is also a member of 
that big insurance order, the Knights of the 
Maccabees. 

Robert Stephenson, his father, came to 
America from the north of Ireland in 1808 
and settled in New Brunswick, where he pur- 
chased a small farm and engaged in the lum- 
ber business. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



239 



McCUEDY, HUGH. One of the most 
prominent members of the Masonic fraternity 
in America, both in rank of office and knowl- 
edge of Masonic jurisprudence, is Hugh 
McCurdy, of Corunna, Mich., past eminent 
grand master of the Grand Encampment, 
Knights Templar. 

He was born in Hamilton, Scotland, 
December 22, 1828, and came to the New 
AVorld with his father ten years later, locat- 
ing in London, Ontario. When he was 14 
years of age he left home and went to Birm- 
ingham, Mich., where he learned the trade of 
a cooper. He traveled about as a journey- 
man cooper the next year, visiting several 
cities. Returning to Michigan, he again 
entered the employ of his old employers, and 
while working read and studied with his books 
fastened up above his bench. Dr. Ebenezer 
Ivaynale took an interest in the young Scot, 
gave him a home and advised him to stick to 
his books and study law. Attending school 
the lad worked at his trade early and late, 
learning Latin while working, and a mer- 
chant in town, Charles Brownell, heard his 
lessons after business hours at night. Hav- 
ing saved a little money, young McCurdy 
invested it in a course at the academy in 
Romeo, and in the winter of 1848-49 taught 
school at Royal Oak. 

Mr. McCurdy commenced to read law in 
the office of Judge A. C. Baldwin, of Pontiac, 
Mich., and was admitted to the bar in July, 
1854. February 24, 1855, he began his 
practice in Corunna, met with success, and 
has since resided in that city. 

Mr. McCurdy became a Mason August 5, 
1850, by joining Birmingham Lodge I^o. 44. 
He is Commander-in-chief and Deputy for 
Michigan of the Supreme Council of 
Sovereign Grand Inspectors; General, 33d 
Degree, A. A. S. R., Northern Masonic Juris- 
diction, U. S. A.; niustrious Commander-in- 
chief, Michigan Council of Deliberation; Past 
M. E. Grand Master of the Grand Encamp- 
ment of Knights Templar for the LTnited 
States; Past R. E. Grand Commander of 
Grand Commandery, Knights Templar of 




HUGH McCURDY. 

Michigan; Past M. Illustrious Grand Master 
Grand Council, R. and S. M. of Michigan; 
Past M. E. Grand High Priest, Grand Chap- 
ter, R. A. M., of Michigan; and Past M. W. 
Grand Master, Grand Lodge, F. and A. M., 
of Michigan. 

Mr. McCurdy has been married twice. 
His present wife was Miss Emma J. Good- 
rich, of Charlotte, Mich. He has two chil- 
dren, Spencer H., who is a farmer near 
Corunna, and John T., an attorney of 
Corunna. 

In his earlier days Mr. McCurdy was 
prominent as a jurist, farmer and banker, and 
he still continues his legal practice with un- 
diminished vigor. He has held the office of 
judge of probate, prosecuting attorney and 
state senator, all as a Democrat. He is a 
shrewd business man, and organized the First 
National Bank of Corunna, of which he wa» 
the first president. 

All over the United States Mr. McCurdy 
is held in the highest respect by the mem- 
bers of the Masonic fraternity. He had not 
forgotten his own early struggles, and is 
always ready to quietly assist any dese!rvin|| 
young man to obtain an educ^ition. X^tt 
Christmas (1899) he made his city a gilt of a 
park of 34 acres in the heart of the ioiftii 
valued at $25,000. 



'^^0' 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




WILLIAM FRANCIS STEWART. 

STEWART, WILLIAM FRANCIS. 
William Francis Stewart started in life at the 
lowest rung of the ladder and has made a 
financial success by his own perseverance and 
unaided efforts. Tie is a descendant of the 
Stewart Clan of Scotland. His father, a small 
farmer, came from Scotland to Canada in 
1828 and located on a farm near London, On- 
tario, where William Francis was born, on 
July 22, 1816. He received a limited educa- 
tion in the district school near his home, and 
when 12 years of age, was loaned out to an 
adjoining farmer, where for three years he 
worked for his board and clothes. When 15 
years old he was apprenticed for four years to 
John Campbell, of London, Ont., to learn the 
carriage woodwork trade. The first year he 
received $25 and his board, and his salary was 
advanced $5 a year for the balance of his 
apprenticeship. After learning his trade in 
a thorough manner, he went directly to Kew 
York, arriving in that city with $2 in his 
pocket. He remained there, working at his 
trade until 1868, when he came west and 
found work at Pontiac, Michigan, with the 
firm of Pai*8ons & Page. A year later he went 
to Flint, to work for his brother, in the 



firm of Roosvelt & Stew^art, carriage builders. 
After one year in his brother's employ, he re- 
turned to Pontiac and worked for Charles 
Parsons until the spring of 1871, when he 
w^ent back to Flint and entered the employ of 
W. A. Patterson, carriage manufacturer. He 
worked for Mr. Patterson, as a carriage body 
maker, for ten years, and in 1881 started in 
for himself, building carriage bodies for the 
trade. He rented the upper floor of a small 
factory and his force consisted of himself and 
one small boy. Most of Mr. Stewart's output 
was taken by W. A. Patterson, and as the 
money commenced to come in, Mr. Stewart 
increased his force by one man, and began 
soliciting trade in Saginaw and Bay City. He 
met with good success and in 1883 moved his 
operations to Pontiac, where the demand 
seemed better. Business thrived there and 
be increased his force to eight men, and in 
1886 had twenty-four men engaged in build- 
ing carriage bodies. That Fall he returned to 
Flint, rented a factory equipped for the manu- 
facture of carriage woodwork, and began 
operations under the name of W. F. Stewart. 
In 1893 he built a factory of his own, which 
burned the next year. It was immediately 
rebuilt, and in 1897 he purchased the build- 
ings he had previously rented, remodeled 
them, thus increasing his capacity 50 per cent. 
In 1898 he incorporated the company under 
the name of The W. F. Stewart Co., of which 
he is president and majority. The output of 
the factory in 1899 was over 100,000 bodies, 
giving employment to over 200 men. Mr. 
Stewart is also a director in the Union Trust 
& Savings Bank, a stockholder in the Citizens' 
Commercial and Savings Bank, both of Flint, 
and president of the Genesee County Agri- 
cultural Society. 

He is a lover of choice stock, making a spe- 
cialty of breeding fine shorthorn cattle and 
Oxford Down sheep on his farm, a short dis- 
tance from the city. 

In 1872 Mr. Stewart and Miss Olive Wy- 
rick w ere married at Flint. Of their two sons, 
William E. is secretary and manager of the 
W. *F. Stewart Company, and S. Sidney is 
bookkeeper with the W. A. Patterson Com- 
pany. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



241 



CrROSVENOR, EBENEZER OLIVER. 

If Diogenes with his lamp in his search for an 
honest man, should meet Mr. Grosvenor, he 
would take out his memorandum book and 
make an entry. Mr. Grosvenor has been for 
sixty-three years a resident of Michigan, and 
for the past sixty years, of the village of Jones- 
ville. But in point of character and public 
service, he belongs to the state and not to any 
particular locality. The first representatives 
of the Grosvenor family in America settled 
in Pomfret, Conn., in 1650. Mr. Grosvenor's 
father, Ebenezer O., and mother, Mary A. 
(Livermore), Grosvenor, moved from Massa- 
chusetts to Stillwater, X. Y., where the pres- 
ent Mr. Grosvenor was born January 26th, 
1820. His paternal grandfather was a Presby- 
terian clergyman (to which faith Mr. Gros- 
venor adheres), and was a chaplain in the 
Army of the Revolution. On his mother's 
side, his grandfather was a soldier at the Bat- 
tle of Bunker Hill. 

With an education reaching to the acad- 
emic, Mr. Grosvenor began his active life as a 
clerk at the age of sixteen. Coming to Albion, 
Mich., in 1887, he was clerk for a brother 
there for some fifteen months, and then went 
to Monroe, where he was employed in the con- 
struction office of the then Michigan Southern 
Railroad, then owned by the state. He went 
to Jones ville in 1840 and was for four years 
clerk for Henry A. Delaran and Hon. Elisha 
P. Champlin, a pioneer of southern Michigan 
and a member of the Territorial Legislature, 
and a daughter of Mr. Champlin, Miss Sarah 
Ann, became Mrs. Grosvenor Feb. 22, 1844. 
The same year, on a capital of $1,100, the 
fruit of his savings, he became partner in a 
general store. He has been a banker since 
1854 and is now president of the Grosvenor 
Savings Bank. He is a merchant miller and 
has large farming interests, and is a stock- 
holder in a number of business and financial 
concerns. He was an active promoter of the 
building of the Fort Wayne, Jackson & Sag- 
inaw Railroad, as he has been of other works 
of local and general character. He has filled 
the more important local offices in his village 




EBENEZER OLIVER GROSVENOR. 

and township and has been for thirty-three 
years a member of the village school board. 

But it is in his service to the state that he is 
the more widely known. He was elected a 
member of the Sate Senate in 18^8 and again 
in 1862. In April, 1861, on the outbreak of 
the civil war, he was appointed on the staff of 
Governor Blair, with the rank of Colonel and 
was president of the Military Contract Board, 
at that time a most important trust, and later 
was president of the State Military Board. In 
1864 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor, and 
in 1866 State Treasurer and again in 1868. 
He was appointed in 1871 a member of the 
Board of State Building Commissioners, hav- 
ing charge of the building of the new State 
Capitol, and as vice-president of the board dis- 
charged the duties of president. In 1879 he 
was elected a Regent of the University. In 
1881 he was appointed a member of the com- 
mission to prepare a revision of the tax laws 
of the state. Mr. Grosvenor is a Republican 
in politics, and a member of the Michigan 
Club, also a member of the Masonic and Odd- 
fellows fraternities. Mr. and Mrs. Grosvenor 
celebrated their golden wedding Feb. 2^nif 
1 894. They have one married daughter, Har- 
riet C, ^\'ife of Charles E, White, an actite 
business man of elonesville. 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




A. OREN WHEELER. 

WHEELER A. OREN. 'Trom newsboy 
to Senator" would aptly epitomize the history 
of the representative citizen whose name heads 
this sketch. Born at Mill River, Mass., in 
1846, ill health prevented him from enjoying 
the advantages of the New England system of 
education nntil he was eight years old. Two 
years at school in his home town and a term 
at Joliet, 111., to which place his parents re- 
moved when he was ten years of age, com- 
prised his early education. When thirteen 
years of age, he obtained a situation as news- 
boy on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 
Railway, running between Chicago and «Toliet. 
His train, reaching (yhicago in the early morn- 
ing and not leaving until night, gave him the 
day in Chicago, w^hich he improved by selling 
the Chicago dailies on the street. He followed 
railroading for five years, filling the positions 
of brakeman and baggageman, and only 
escaped being a conductor by reason of not be- 
ing old enough. E. D. Wheeler, a brother of 
A. O., was living at Manistee, Mich., and in 
the fall of 1867 the latter obtained a thirty- 
days' leave of absence, for the purpose of pay- 
ing him a visit. He was winter-bound at Man- 
istee, there being no railway communication, 



with a mail but once a w^eek, and though home- 
sick enough to have taken wings if possible, he 
was compelled to remain. His homesickness, 
however, disappeared -with the winter snows, 
and an eligible business oft'er in the spring. 
His energy and business aptness were recog- 
nized by John Canfield, a resident of Man- 
istee (his brother-in-law), who had decided to 
build and operate a line of tugs for local ser- 
vice. Mr. Wheeler was tendered and accepted 
the position of manager and the sum of $60,- 
000 w^as placed at his disposal to build and 
equip the line. This fact itself is a striking 
commentary on the confidence that he enjoyed, 
and which could only have grown upon a well 
grounded character. The Canfield Tug Line 
subsequently built and operated several lum- 
ber barges in addition to their local service, 
Mr. Wheeler being identified with the man- 
agement until he became proprietor a few 
years since. His other responsible business 
connections are : President of the M. B. 
Wheeler Electric Co., of Grand Rapids; di- 
rector in the Manistee National Bank, and 
member of the Barnes & Co. Insurance 
Agency of Manistee. Up to four years ago he 
was identified with the lumbering interests of 
western Michigan, with the late John Canfield 
of Manistee. 

Mr. Wheeler's' parents were Abram 
Wheeler, a direct descendant of Benjamin 
Wheeler of Berkshire county, Mass., , and 
Lucinda Canfield of New Marlborough, Mass. 
He was married in 1870 to Miss Ella M. 
Barnes, daughter of Russell Barnes of Man- 
istee. They have four children, Irma, wife 
of Rufus C. Thayer, of Colorado Springs, 
Colo.; Abram 0. and Morton B., connected 
with the Wheeler Electric Co., of Grand Rap- 
ids, and Burr, yet a college student. 

In politics Mr. Wheeler has always been a 
Republican. His official service has been as 
alderman of his city, two terms in the state 
Senate, 1891-2 and 1895-6, and IT. S. Mar- 
shal of the Western District of Michigan, to 
which he was appointed by President McKin- 
ley, Feb. 16, 1897, and which office he now 
holds. He became a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, when twenty-two years of age. 
There are few men in this favored land of op- 
portunities and possibilities who can show a 
better record than Mr. Wheeler. 



HISTORICi^L SKETCHES. 



243 



BEOAVN, ADDIS0:N^ MAKEPEACE, 

The line of Browns represented herein traces 
its descent from England, across the water to 
Xew England and from New England to 
Michigan. E. Lakin Brown was a name famil- 
iar in Michigan affairs forty years ago. Mr. 
Brown was a representative in the Legislature 
in 1841, a Senator in 1855 and again in 1879, 
and a Regent of the University from 1858 to 
1864. He came from Plymouth, Vt., in 1831, 
settling in Schoolcraft, Michigan. Mr. Brown 
was twice married, first in 1837 to Amelia W. 
Scott, and again in 1852, to Miss Mary Ann 
Miles, of Hinesburg, Vt. To them were born 
three children, Edward Miles Brown, now pro- 
fessor of English Literature in the University 
of Cincinnati; George Lakin (deceased) and 
Addison Makepeace, born at Schoolcraft, Feb- 
ruary 15, 1859. Addison M. passed from the 
public schools of his native village to the State 
University, from which he graduated with the 
degree of A. B., in 1883. His father was an 
extensive agriculturist at Schoolcraft, owning 
a number of farms, and after leaving the Uni- 
versity the son assumed the management of 
these interests, which is still his occupation. 
At the age of forty-one, his life history is but 
just begun. He has served the people of his 
native village, however, both as trustee and 
president, three terms in the former and two 
terms in the last named position. His uni- 
versity training naturally inclined him toward 
educational work, and he has for some ten 
years held the position of director of the school 
board of the village. He was for several years 
secretary of the Kalamazoo County Pioneer 
Society and president of the Kalamazoo 
County Husbandmen's Club. He was called 
to a larger field in 1898 by his election to the 
State Senate from the Mnth Senatorial Dis- 
trict, composed of the counties of Calhoun and 
Kalamazoo. He was a useful member of the 
Senate, being chairman of the Committee on 
the Agricultural College and a member of the 




ADDISON MAKEPEACE BROWN. 

University Committee. His record in the Sen- 
ate will commend him for further honors in 
the future. 

Miss Mollie Earl, daughter of John Earl, of 
Schoolcraft, became Mrs. Brown, October 
29th, 1895. They have four children. 

Mr. Brown traces his lienage back on his 
father's side to eTohn Brown of Hawkden, 
Suffolk County, England, born in 1631, from 
whom he is sixth in descent. John Brown 
married Esther Makepeace of Boston, Eng- 
land, the company coming in 1655 to Cam- 
bridge, Mass. Mr. Brown's suggestive middle 
name is therefore traceable back to a pericKi 
Avhen there was certainly a demand for peace- 
making in Europe and when it was quitei the 
fashion to bestow upon or select names for 
persons representing some moral idea. The 
family tree also shows greater fruitfulness 
than we are accustomed to look for in modern 
families, the children in five of the familied 
of Mr. Brown's ancestry ranging from eight 
to eleven in number. On his mother** 8wi% 
Mr. Brown's ancestry nms b^c^k to 3^m 
Miles, and his wife, Mary Ann Gran© of Ule^ 
MiHord, Conn., 1798. 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




GEORGE GARY GOVELL. 

COVELL, GEORGE GARY. The par- 
ents of Mr. Covell were Daniel H. and Caro- 
line (Dustin) Covell, who came to Michigan in 
18B7, settling in Lenawee county, near the 
Monroe county line, and near the village of 
Dundee, in Monroe county. The earlier Cov- 
ells came from England about the year 1722. 
George G. was born in Dundee October 16th^ 
1860. His early education was received in the 
public schools at Dundee, froih which he en- 
tered the law department of the University in 
the class of 1885, where he remained one year. 
He then entered the law office of Seth C. Ran- 
dall at Dundee and was admitted to the bar 
at Monroe May 27th, 1887, before Judge Jos- 
lin, then the presiding judge of the circuit 
comprising Monroe and Washtenaw counties. 
Opening an office ^t Dundee, he soon learned 
that there was no lawyer at Benzonia, then the 
county seat of Benzie county, to which place 
be removed in the summer of 1887. Ben- 
zonia was then in the northern wilds, having 
no connection by railroad with the outside 
world. It is said that fortune favors the brave, 
and if it required some fortitude to thus stick 
his stake in the wilderness, Mr. 0. has been 
fairly well rewarded by the smiles of fortune. 



He was elected prosecuting attorney of Ben- 
zie county in 1888 and was re-elected in 1890. 
During his two terms as prosecuting attorney 
he had three noted murder cases, and made a 
record as a young prosecutor. One of the 
three, and which gave him marked promi- 
nence, was the case of Wright, the millionaire 
lumberman, which was fought through the 
courts for several years, finally resulting in the 
conviction and sentence of Wright to the state 
prison at Jackson — a life sentence. This case 
has been recalled to the public attention dur- 
ing the past year by an unsuccessful applica- 
tion to the pardon board for a commution of 
Wright's sentence. Mr. Covell resigned as 
prosecuting attorney before the end of his 
second term, and removed to Traverse City, 
where he resumed practice, which at once be- 
came successful and lucrative, and to which 
the prestige which he had acquired in the ad- 
joining county no doubt largely contributed. 
He was twice elected to the lower house of the 
legislature, from the district comprising the 
counties of Grand Traverse, Benzie and Lee- 
lanaw, serving during the sessions of 1893 and 
1895. He was elected to the State Senate in 
1896 from the 27th district, of which Grand 
Traverse county forms a part, serving during 
the regular session of 1897, but did not serve 
at the special session of 1898, having been ap- 
pointed to the U. S. District Attorneyship for 
the Western District. While his personal 
business and address are at Traverse City, his 
official headquarters are at Grand Rapids, 
where the District Court is held. 

Mr. Covell is a director in the Traverse City 
S: Leelanaw Railroad Co., of which enterprise 
he was one of the originators and chief pro- 
moters. The road, which is now building, 
runs north from Traverse City into Leelanaw 
county, and will tap the famous fruit belt of 
northwestern Michigan, as well as open up an 
immense hardwood tract. 

Miss Alice ivyle, daughter of Robert Kyle, 
of Corunna, became Mrs. Covell in 1885. 
They have one daughter, Beulah L. 

Mr. CovelFs societv connections are Ma- 
sonic, including Traverse City Cominandery 
K^nights Templar, Saladin Temple (Mystic 
Shrine) of Grand Rapids, Oddfellows and 
Elks. He is a Republican in politics. 



HISTOEICfAL SKETCHES. 



245 



WAREEN, TIENRY MONTGOMERY. 
Many of the older citizens of Michigan will 
remember Joseph Warren, editor of the old 
Detroit Tribune, at the pivotal period, politic- 
ally speaking, of 1854. Mr. Warren has 
been credited with being the father of the 
Republican party. He was certainly one of 
the earliest promoters of the movement which 
culminated in its formation at Jackson, July 
Gth, 1854, and it has been said that the plan 
was first suggested by him, as it had the earnest 
support of the paper of which he was the edi- 
tor. He was, in his earlier life, a journalist 
at Bangor, Maine, but removed to Lancaster, 
Pa., in 1830. After a few vears he went to 



Auburn, N. 



Y., and subsequently to Detroit, 



with the business connection above noted. 
His connection with the Tribune ceased in 
1865, and he was afterwards editor of the old 
Detroit Advertiser, before the consolidation of 
the two papers. After the Republicans came 
in possession of the national government in 
1861, he was given a clerkship in the Pension 
Office at Washington, which he held until his 
death in 1886. He was the third in direct 
descent from General Joseph Warren, who fell 
at the battle of Bunker Hill. 

The record so far will read more like the 
biography of the father, Joseph Warren, than 
of the son, the doctor, whose name heads the 
sketch, but the latter will not envy the space 
thus given to his ancestry. Dr. Warren was 
horn at Columbia, Pa., April 19th, 1840. 
When he was seven years of age the family 
removed to Auburn, X. Y., where he attended 
the public schools, his primary school training 
there and at Detroit, closing with his twelfth 
year. He then took a commercial course in a 
commercial college in Detroit, graduating 
therefrom in 1856. The ensuing four years 
were improved by commercial work and cler- 
ical work in Detroit and Pittsburg, Pa., his 
aim being to save means that would procure 
him a professional education. In 1860 he 
entered Hahnemann Medical College at Chi- 
cago, studying there for a year. He then en- 
tered the Western Medical College at Cleve- 
land, graduating therefrom in 1864. Going 




HENRY MONTGOMERY WARREN. 

direct to Jonesville, he entered upon a success- 
ful practice and has since resided there, except 
a couple of years passed at a water cure in 
Kalamazoo. Dr. Warren was president of the 
State Homeopathic Medical Society in 1886 
and is a member of the American Institute of 
Homeopathy. He was township superinten- 
dent of schools in Jonesville for three years, 
during the tiine when the township superin- 
tendency was in vogue, and was chairman of 
the township Board of School Inspectors eight 
years, 1885-93. Among the historic names 
of Jonesville is that of Ransom Gardner, and 
it was to Miss Georgia S. Harris, an adopted 
daughter of Mr. Gardner, that Dr. Warren 
was married July 16th, 1863. Lilian E., wife 
of Fred Lewis of Vacaville, California, is a 
daughter, and Harry B., of Wabash, Ind., is a 
son. They also cherish an adopted son, Don, 
a school boy at Jonesville. The mother of Dr. 
Warren, whose maiden name was Anne E. 
Spear, daughter of Robert Spear, of Bangor^ 
Maine, is still living, at the age of eighlgrndx^ 
and finds a home with the doctor. The oify 
business connection which the lattet hm^ ^%: 
side of his profession, is that of a \ 
in the Omega Cement Oompany of $m^i 



246 



MEN OF PEOGRESS. 




GEORGE WILLARD. 

WILLAED, GEOEGE. For half a cen- 
tury Mr. Willard has been ^ prominent figure 
in the activities of central-western Michigan. 
He is a direct descendant of Simon Willard, 
the pioneer settler of Concord, Mass., who 
came from England in 1634. His father was 
Allen Willard, a teacher, and a student at 
Dartmouth college, during its re-organization 
and straggles with opposing factions, pending 
the famous judicial decision. His mother was 
Eli^a Barron, daughter of Nathan Barron, one 
of the early settlers of northern Vermont. 
Mr. Willard was born at Bolton, Vt., March 
20, 1824. The family moved to Battle Creek 
township when the son was twelve years of 
age. He was at that age a proficient Latin and 
Greek student, the fruit of close application to 
his school studies and his father's instructions. 
.He worked with his father in developing a new 
farm, and at the age of seventeen entered the 
Baptist College at Kalamazoo, remaining two 
years. For four years, 1844-48, he was prin- 
cipal successively of the Marshall Academy 
and the Ooldwater public schools, two years in 
each. In 1848 he entered the Episcopal min- 
istry, and was pastor of churches respectively 



at Coldwater, 1848-55, at Battle Creek, 
1855-60, and at Kalamazoo, 1860-63. For 
two years, 1863-65, he was professor of Latin 
at Kalamazoo College. In 1856 he was 
elected a member of the State Board of Edu- 
cation. As a member of this board, he assisted 
in organizing and opening the State Agricul- 
tural College, then under its management. 
He was twice elected a Eegent of the Univer- 
sity, first for the short term in 1863, and again 
for the full term of eight years in 1865. Was 
representative in the Legislature in 1867, and 
in the spring of that year was elected a member 
of the Constitutional Convention of 1867, and 
was delegate at large to the National Eepub- 
Jican convention in 1872. He was twice 
elected to Congress, 1872 and 1874, and took 
influential rank there. During the critical 
days following the presidential election in 
1876, when the peace of the country trembled 
in the balance because of the claims of the 
rival candidates, Hayes and Tilden, Mr. Wil- 
lard was a member of the Joint Commission, 
including the leading members of the two 
houses, of both parties, that framed the elec- 
toral bill," through which the imbroglio was 
happily adjusted. He was also a member of 
the joint silver commission. Mr. Willard was 
not in all things in sympathy with his party, 
on the currency question, and in 1878 he acted 
with the then greenback party, but has other- 
wise always been a Eepublican. He has also 
filled various local offices in Battle Creek. 

In 1867 Mr. Willard purchased the Battle 
Creek Journal, then a weekly paper, from 
which the Daily Journal sprang in 1872. His 
newspaper connection has been continuous 
since 1867 up to the present time. His intel- 
lectual labors have by no means been purely 
local, he having contributed hundreds of 
articles to the press of the country, which have 
won for him a national reputation as a writer 
on national topics. The record of a life such 
as Mr. Willard presents carries its own com- 
mentary. 

Mr. Willard has been twice married. His 
first wife, Emily Harris, daughter of Eev. 
John Harris, died in 1885. In 1887 he mar- 
ried Mrs. Elizabeth A. Willard of Chicago. 
He has two daughters and- a son by the first 
marriage, Fannie A., wife of Charles D. 
Brewer, and Lilla E., wife- of E. W. Moore, 
both of Battle Creek, and George B., con- 
nected with the Journal. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



247 



O'BEIElSr, THOMAS J. A native of 
Jackson county, Michigan, born July 30th, 
1842, Mr. O'Brien's name is suggestive of an 
ancestry representing the land of Burke, of 
Sheridan, of Emmet, and O'Connell. Mr. 
O'Brien's early years were spent on his father's 
farm in Jackson county, his early education 
being such as was afforded by the country 
school of the day. In his eighteenth year he 
entered the High School at Marshall, and 
during his course there read law in the office 
of J ohn C. Fitzgerald, with whom, on his ad- 
mission to the bar in 1864, he formed a co- 
partnership which continued imtil 1871. His 
law studies also embraced a course in the law 
department of the University. D. Darwin 
Hughes of Marshall was at that time the 
leader of the Bar of central Michigan, and 
many of the older residents of the state hold 
pleasurable recollections of his contributions 
to literature, especially his articles on the song 
birds and game birds of Michigan. Mr. 
Hughes was tendered and accej)ted the posi- 
tion of general counsel for the Grand Rapids 
ik Indiana Railroad Co., a position involving 
not only the general duties of an attorney, but 
also the defence of the company's rights, which 
were more or less in controversy, to an exten- 
sive land grant. This work necessitated his 
removal to Grand Rapids. A man of Mr. 
Hughes' ability and experience could not well 
err in the choice of a partner and assistant, 
which he found in the person of Mr. O'Brien. 
The firm commanded a large practice outside 
of their special railway clientage, and because 
of this a third partner, Mr. M. J. Smiley, was 
admitted, the firm of Hughes, O'Brien & 
Smiley continuing until terminated by the 
death of Mr. Hughes in 1883. Upon Mr. 
Hughes' death, Mr. O'Brien was appointed to 
take his place as general counsel for the Grand 
Rapids & Indiana Railroad Co., a place which 
he still holds. 

A Republican in politic^, Ml*. O'Brien has 
preferred to be the lawyer rather than the poli- 
tician. Yet at the spring election in 1883, 
without any solicitation on his part, he was 
nominated by the Republican State Conven- 




THOMAS J. O'BRIEN. 

tion to fill a vacancy on the bench-of the Su- 
preme Court. The Republican ticket failed 
at that election by a comparatively small mar- 
gin, although Mr. O'Brien's vote exceeded 
that of one or two others on the ticket. Mr. 
O'Brien was a delegate at large to the Repub- 
lican National Convention in 1896, and was 
on the committee appointed to inform Mr. 
McKinley of his nomination, which with the 
candidacy mentioned, comprehends his politi- 
cal action. 

In the way of general business, Mr. O'Brien 
is president of the Antrim Iron Co. and of the 
Grand Rapids Law Library Association and is 
a director of the National City Bank and the 
Kent County Savings Bank of Grand Rapids, 
also of the Grand Rapids Gas Lighting Co. > 
the Alabastine Co. and the Mackinac Hotel 
Co. He is an attendant upon the Episcopal 
Church and a member of the Peninsular, 
Country and Lakeside Clubs, and the Kent 
Golf Club. Mrs. O'Brien, to whom he was 
married September 4th, 1873, is a daughter 
of the late Wm. A. Howard, a name familial* 
in the political annals of Michigan forty yeard 
ago. Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien have a son and 
daughter, Howard, aged 24, and Oathe^ll€lJ^ 
aged 22, both living at home, and unmaitiedir 



US': 



MEN or PKOGKESS. 




ALFRED DAY RATHBONE. 

RATHBONE, ALFRED DAY. Among 
the early settlers of the present city of Grand 
Rapids was Alfred Day Rathbone, who came 
from Cayuga county, I^. Y., in 1836. He 
was a lawyer by profession and the first to 
locate in that part of. the state. The name of 
Rathbone is intimately associated with the 
early history of Grand Rapids, and many citi- 
zens who have passed the half way house in 
the journey of life, will recall having found 
rest and refreshment at the Rathbone House, 
the leading hostelry of the city forty years 
ago. The push and energy of the early settler 
seem to have descended to the son, bearing 
the same name, and the subject of this sketch. 
Born at Grand Rapids June 14, 1842, his 
early education, up to the age of fourteen, was 
in the local schools. On the death of his 
father, in 1856, he became clerk in a general 
store, of which his uncle, Amos Rathbone, 
wae proprietor, so continuing until he reached 
his majority in 1863. He then became a 



partner in the business with his uncle, and 
purchased the famous gypsum quarries at 
Grand Rapids in 1864, for the purpose of 
burning the gypsum and putting it on the mar- 
ket as plaster, the two Rathbones, Amos and 
Alfred D., being partners. In 1882 the two 
Rathbones made a contract with the Alabas- 
tine Company to furnish them rock from their 
gypsum quarries for a term of five years. In 
1886 the quarries passed into the hands of the 
company, pursuant to stipulation in the con- 
tract, and A. D. Rathbone was made secretary 
of the company. In 1882 the quarries were 
being worked by a force of from 75 to 150 
men, which has been doubled under the new 
management. In 1897 Mr. Rathbone was 
made manager, secretary and treasurer of the 
consolidated interests, and still holds that posi- 
tion. The Alabastine Company was first or- 
ganized in 1880, and its varied products are 
now sold in every hardware, drug, paint, and 
wall paper stoi'e in the United States and other 
countries, giving employment the year round 
to twenty traveling salesmen, and to a work- 
ing force as above. As a judicious advertiser 
and general all round pusher, Mr. Rathbone 
certainly stands at the head. 

Mr. Rathbone is the secretary, treasurer 
and manager of the Anti-Kalsomine Company 
and is president of the Aldine Manufacturing 
Company, manufacturers of patent grates and 
mantels. Is also a director in the Fourth Na- 
tional Bank of Grand Rapids and member of 
the discount committee. In politics, he ranks 
as a Democrat. 

Miss Orcelia Adams, daughter of John L. 
Adams, a railroad contractor of Lynchburg, 
Va., became Mrs. Rathbone in 1867. They 
have one son, Alfred D., who is superintendent 
of the Wall Finish Mills of Grand Rapids, and 
confidential secretarv of his father. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



249 



CORLISS, HOIST JOHN B: Mr. Corliss is 
now serving his third term in Congress, having 
been first elected in 1894. He was born at 
Riehford, Vermont, Jnne 7th, 1851. George 
Corliss came to this country about 1760, and 
settled at Haverhill, Mass., and took an active 
part in the AVar of the Revolution. After the 
war, one of his grandsons settled in Riehford, 
Vt., being among the first settlers at that 
point, and John B: comes of this sturdy stock. 
His higher education was received at the Ver- 
mont Methodist University, from which he 
graduated in 1871. He entered at once upon 
the study of law and after an elementary read- 
ing, he entered Columbian Law College at 
Washington, D. C* from which he graduated 
in 1875. In September of that year he came 
to Detroit, and entered upon the practice of 
his profession. His keen perceptive faculties, 
his tireless energy and his devotion to clients, 
soon won him position at the bar, and he soon 
became recognized as among the leading attor- 
neys of the city. During the first year of his 
professional career, Mr. Corliss sought a con- 
jugal partner in the person of Miss Elizabeth 
N. Danforth, of Windsor Co., Vt. Two sons 
and two daughters were the fruit of the union. 
They were left orphans by the death of their 
mother in 1886 and have since had only a 
father's* care, Mr. Corliss never having re- 
married. 

Early in his career Mr. Corliss began to take 
an active interest in public affairs. There has 
been no political campaign since he came to 
Detroit in which his voice has not been heard 
on the stump and always in advocacy of that 
stalwart Republicanism which is his gospel. 
In 1881 he was elected City Attorney of De- 
troit, and re-elected in 1883. During his in- 
cuumbency of this office he prepared a com- 
plete revision of the city charter, which was 
passed by the Legislature in 1885, and is still 
the organic law of the city. Devotion to his 
trusts, to his clients and to any cause that he 
deems to be right, as well as devotion to his 
friendships and his afHliationB, forms, it may 
be said, the more distinctive element of his 
character. When the county clerkship was in 




HON. JOHN B. CORLISS. 

dispute following the election in 1892, deem- 
ing that the right of the matter lay with the 
Republican candidate, he espoused his cause, 
as well from the sense of right as because of its 
bearing upon his party's interests, and carried 
the contest to a successful termination, making 
his service gratuitous. He gave five months of 
his time to the duties of Corporation Counsel 
of Detroit, to which he was appointed by the 
Mayor, over the then incumbent, Judge Speed, 
and expended some $2,000 in defense of his 
right while the same was in litigation, and 
when the decree of the Supreme Court went 
against him, he refunded to the city the salary 
that he had drawn, declining the offer of the 
common council to reimburse him. These 
facts are cited simply as showing the high sense 
of honor that governs his action. 

Mr. Corliss is senior in the law firm of Cor- 
liss, Andrus & Leete, one of the leading law 
firms of Detroit, and has besides, outside bus- 
iness and corporate interests.*- He is a zealous 
worker in the Masonic fraternity and has held 
the position of Commander-in-chief of the 
Michigan Sovereign Consistory, and was one 
of the chief promoters of the Masonic l^etnple 
enterprise. 



MEIS^ OF PKOGKESS. 




PHILIP PADGHAM. 



PA.DGITAM, PHILIP. Judge Philip 
Padgham is the present presiding judge of the 
Twentieth Judicial District, composed of the 
counties of Allegan and Ottawa, his residence 
being at Allegan village. He was born in 
Kent county, England, in March, 1839, his 
parents being of the English farmer class. His 
early education was in a parish school for boys, 
between the ages of seven and twelve years. 
Wlien he w^as twelve years of age his parents 
came to America, locating first at Framington, 
Ontario county, N. Y. As one of a family of 
eleven children, his work was of necessity con- 
tributed toward the family support, so that 
his educational advantages in his new home 
were limited. x\t the age of fifteen he came 
to ^Michigan with a relative who was a farmer 
near Palmyra, Lenawee county. He soon 
found work as a farm hand, beginning at $6 
per month, working at farm work during the 
summer and in the winters of 1856 and 1857 
working in the lumber camps of Sanilac and 
St Olair counties. In the spring of 1857 he 
returned to Farmington, N. Y., where he at- 
tended the public schools for six months, fol- 
lowed by two terms at Macedon Academy at 



Macedon, Wayne county, N". Y. Keturning 
to Michigan in 1858 he secured a teacher's 
certificate and taught district schools suc- 
cessively at Blissfield in Lenawee county and 
near Centreville, in St. Joseph county. He 
then became a student in the Centreville High 
School under J. C. Barnard until the fall term 
in 1859, subsequently teaching for two win- 
ters at Burr Oak. In September, 1861 he was 
appointed assistant principal of the Centreville 
High School, which position he filled for three 
years, when he was promoted to the principal- 
ship and served in that capacity until 1868, 
a seven-years service in all. His life was not 
designed for an idle one and during his four 
years' principalship he rea\i law as he had op- 
portunity and during vacations, was a syste- 
matic law student with a law firm at Centre- 
ville. He was admitted to the bar before 
Judge Nathaniel Bacon June 12, 1868, and 
went into active practice at Centreville, and in 
1869 removed to Plainwell, Allegan county, 
where he was in practice four years. In 1873 
he removed to Allegan and formed a law part- 
nership under the firm name of Arnold & 
Padgham, which continued about two years. 
Judge Arnold beiug appointed Circuit Judge. 
Mr. Padgham then formed a partnership with 
his nephew, J. H. Padgham, and the firm be- 
' came Padgham & Padgham and lasted for 
about twelve years, when it was dissolved 
and Mr. Humj^hrey became one of the firm of 
Padgham & Humphrey, which w^as terminated 
in 1893, by Mr. Padgham's election as Circuit 
Judge, to which he was re-elected in 1899 for 
the further term of six years. 

Judge Padgham has seen other official ser- 
vice. He Avas elected prosecuting attorney in 
1874 and served two terms, 1875-9, and was 
elected to a third term in 1878 but resigned in 
1879 because of other leg^l business. He was 
president of the village of Allegan 1890-91 
and served three years on the school board. 

He is in politics a Eepublican and is a mem- 
ber of the Oddfellows Order and of the 
Knights of Pythias. Miss Eliza C. Landon, 
daughter of O. P. Landon, of Sturgis, Mich., 
became Mrs. Padgham June 9, 1861. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



251 



DUNCAN, MUREAY MORRIS. Mur- 
ray Morris Duncan was born May 10, 1858, 
in the city of Washington, District of Colum- 
bia. His father was Rev. Thomas Duncan, 
D. D., of Pennsylvania, and his great-grand- 
father was Chief Justice of Pennsylvania 
from 1842 to 1848. His mother was Maria 
L. Morris, daughter of Commodore Morris, 
U. S. Navy. 

Murray M. Duncan attended private 
schools until he was 16 years of age, and then 
entered the I.eheigh University at Bethlehem, 
Pa., from w^hich he graduated as a mining 
engineer, in 1880. He was engaged as chem- 
ist, having taken a course in eclectic chemistry 
at the University, by the Cambria Iron Co., 
at Johnstown, Pa., and remained with this 
company for one year. The following year 
he engaged with the Roane Iron Co. at Chat- 
tanooga, Tenn., and stayed in that position 
for ten years. The first year he served as 
chemist and the next he was promoted to 
superintendent of the Open Hearth Steel 
Co.'s plant. For nine years he acted as man- 
ager for all the company's mines and fur- 
naces. He came to Michigan in 1892 to take 
charge of the Antrim Iron Co.'s plant at Man- 
celona, as manager. On Jan. 1, 1897, Mr. 
Duncan went to Ishpeming, Mich., as agent 
for the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Co., which is one 
of the largest iron ore producers on the Upper 
Peninsula, and operates the Cliffs Shaft, 
Cleveland Lake, Moro, Salisbury, Tilden, 
Volunteer and Imperial mines. Over 1,500 
men are on the pay roll of the company. Mr. 
Dxmcan has held the position of manager for 
this big company ever since, making his home 
at Marquette, Mich. He is a member of the 
Board of Public Works of Ishpeming and is 
a director in the Ishpeming National Bank of 
that place. 

Mr. Duncan married in 1881 Miss Harriet 




' MURRAY MORRIS PUNCAN. 

DeWitt Coppee, the daughter of Dr. Henry 
Coppee, LL. D., formerly the president of 
the Leheigh University, from which Mr. Dun- 
can graduated. He has three children^ all of 
whom are now attending school. They are 
William Coppee, aged 14; Pauline Coppee, 
aged 12, and Helen Coppee, aged 10. 

His long experience in the finer branches 
of mining, as an assayist, and his practical 
knowledge of the work necessary in develop- 
ing and securing the best results from mining 
property have placed Mr. Duncan in the front 
rank of his profession. This knowledge is 
coupled with a knowledge of men and he 
shows good executive ability in the handling 
of those in the employ of the company he 
represents. Mr. Duncan is a member of 
Marquette Commandery and a Shriner of Ah- 
med Temple, Marqiiette. He has a wide cir- 
cle of friends, and when at college he became 
a member of the Greek letter fraternity by 
joining the Phi Kappa Sigma Soci^y of ^ 
Leheigh University. 



MEN or PROGKESS. 




MARTIN HENDERSON QUICK.- 

QUICK, MARTIN HENDERSON. 
Lumbering was the first business in which 
Mr. Quick engaged, and he has worked at it 
all his life. 

He was born at Cameron, N. Y., February 
17, 1840. His father was Hiram Quick, a 
descendant of the Quick family, that came 
over from the Netherlands, contemporary 
with Heindrick Hudson, and settled in New 
Jersey. Being the oldest of a family of six- 
teen children, it became necessary for him to 
go to work very early in life. His education, 
which was obtained at the district school, was 
continually interrupted by work, but he at- 
tended until he was 18 years of age, when 
time permitted. At that age he commenced 
life as a lumberman, working with his father, 
who, during the falls and winters took con- 
tracts for lumbering and clearing up lands. 

When he was 20 years old he took charge 
of a water sawmill at Cooper ^s Plains, N. Y., 
which his father was operating under con- 
tract. The next year he took the contract 
himself, and for t^vo years cleared $1,000 a 
year, which gave him his start in life. He 



then spent one summer prospecting in Illinois 
and Iowa, and made a little money dealing in 
timothy seed, but in the fall of 1866 he re- 
turned east and entered the employ of Fox, 
Weston. & Bronson, lumber manufacturers at 
Painted Post, N. Y., working as a millwright. 
He remained with this firm six years, and in 
1872, together with his employers, became 
interested in the purchase of the property of , 
the Chicago Lumbering Company at Manis- 
tique, Michigan, whither he removed to take 
charge of the manufacturing department of 
their extensive lumbering operations. In 
1883 he aided in the organization of the Wes- 
ton Limiber (yompany, becoming a director 
and superintendent. About the same time he 
was made vice-president of the Chicago Lum- 
bering Company, and later on became general 
superintendent of both companies, all of 
which positions he still holds. The increase 
and success of the business of these companies 
may be seen from the output. In 1873, with 
one mill only, 6,000,000 feet of lumber was 
produced, while in 1898 their three mills cut 
nearly 75,000,000 feet. 

Mr. Quick is also interested in other enter- 
prises at Manistique, being a director in the 
Manistique Bank, director and treasurer of 
the AVhite Marble lime Company, director 
and auditor of the Manistique & Northwest- 
ern Railway Company, and president of the 
Manistique Telephone Company, all of which 
he aided in organizing. 

On September 4, 1862, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Martha Jane Gifford, at 
Cooper's Plains, N. Y. They have two chil- 
dren, Alice (now ]\rrs. E. W. Miller), and 
Oren G. Quick. 

In politics Mr. Quick is a Republican, and 
has several times served as supervisor and as 
president of the village of Manistique. He 
has been a member of the School Board 
twenty-six years, and moderator twenty-two 
years. He is a deacon and trustee of the 
First Baptist Church of Manistique, which he 
was instrumental in organizing. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



258 



HAEEIS, SAMUEL B. Near Camborne, 
in Cornwall, England, on December 18, 
1834, Samuel B. Harris was born. That par- 
ticular section of England is noted for its 
many rich copper and tin mines, and most of 
the people of Cornwall have been brought up 
as miners, many of them entering the mines 
when they are mere children, and grow up 
learning every detail of the work almost as 
thoroughly as a mining engineer learns it in 
college. _ 

Samuel B. Harris, agent and superintend- - 
ent of the Quincy mine' at Hancock, Michi- 
ii^Rix, comes from a family of miners. His 
father was engaged as such, and his grand- 
father, Benjamin Harris, was also a miner iu 
the mines at Cornwall. As a boy he attended 
the national schools from his seventh until 
his eleventh year, and then he became an 
assistant to a mining surveyor and assayist at 
40 shillings a month. Four years later he went 
into the mine to work, and remained at that 
employment until he was 19 years of age, 
when he came to America and West, securing 
his first work in this country at Dodgeville, 
Wisconsin, in lead mines, working on specula- 
tion and being paid pro rata for what ores 
were uncovered. He earned his first money in 
America sinking a 100-foot shaft. The fol- 
lowing spring he attended a teacher's exam- 
ination and was granted a certificate, and until 
1856 he taught a district school at $30 a 
month. After this he went back to his first 
employment as a miner at the Old Minnesota 
mine for two years, and then with a party of 
three went to the gold fields of Nova Scotia, 
which were then being opened and promised 
great fortunes to the adventurers. The prom- 
ises were never realized. Mr. Harris came 
back three months later with only a dollar in 
his pocket and went to work at the Phoenix 
mine. Beturning to Dodgeville, Wisconsin, 
shortly afterward he became principal of the 
public schools of that city and after two years 
he secured a mining contract at Isle Roy ale 
mine and later with the Mesnard and Pontiac 
mines, where in 1864 he was made mine cap- 
tain of the underground work. He then ac- 




SAMUEL. B. HARRIS. 

cepted a similar position with the Phoenix 
copper mine. The following two years he 
was agent for the Eagle Harbor property, 
having several mines under his management, 
and after that he resigned to accept the posi- 
tion of assistant mining captain on the Calu- 
met & Hecla mine. A year and a half later 
he was made captain of the Franklin mine, 
which he resigned in twelve months' time. 
He was then made agent for the Ontonagon 
group of mines, including the Ridge, Adven- 
ture and others, and he held this for thirteen 
years, resigning in 1883 to accept the super- 
intendency of the Quincy Mining Company's 
mines at Hancock 

Mr. Harris is a Republican and has held the 
office of supervisor of Quincy township, 
Houghton county, since 1884. He is the presi- 
dent of the First ifational Bank of Hancock; 
vice-president of the Northern Michigan 
Building & Loan Association, Houghton, and 
a director in the Peninsular Electric Light & 
Power Company of the same place, 

Mr. Harris married ^Miss Mary Bennett in 
1854 at Camborn^ England. -They haTe 
three children. 



MESS KJI^ rnDKJrnE^^. 




CHARLES WESTLEY GALE, 

GALE, CHARLES WESTLEY. Charles 
Westley Gale, of Owosso, Michigan, was bom 
in the township of Bennington, Shiawassee 
county, Michigan, March 21, 1850. His 
father, Isaac Gale, came to Michigan from 
Canajahara county, New York state, in 1831, 
making the trip by way of the Erie canal to 
Buffalo, and thence by boat to Michigan, and 
to Washtenaw county by ox team. In 1840 
the elder Gale removed to Bennington town- 
ship and purchased a tract of land of 415 
acres, which he cleared up and which is now 
one of the finest farm in the county. 

Charles W. Gale, when a boy, worked on 
the farm and attended district schools until 
he was 18 years of age, when he attended the 
Corunna High School, and when he gradu- 
ated from there his father gave him the use 
of twenty acres of new land and a team, and 
offered him a start in life for himself or the 
privilege of working as a farm hand. The 
former proposition being the most favorable, 
young Gale turned in on the new land and 
raised a good crop of about 600 bushels of 
wheat which netted him $2.10 per bushel. 



With this he leased his father's farm and suc- 
cessfully operated it until 1882, when he re- 
moved to Eaton Eapids, Michigan, and em- 
barked in the hardware business with his 
brother under the firm name of Gale Brothers. 
The business thrived and at the expiration 
of four years sold it out to good advan- 
tage. Charles Gale then looked after his 
father's business, which required his full at- 
tention until the latter's death. In 1894 Mr. 
Gale moved to Owosso, Michigan, and made 
that his home. He is identified with many of 
its business and financial interests. He is 
vice-president and director of the Owosso 
Savings Bank, a director in the Estey Manu- 
facturing Company (furniture, etc.), a direc- 
tor in the C'astree-Shaw Company and presi- 
dent of the Owosso Telephone Company. The 
latter company was organized by him in 1897 
among the business men of Owosso, and Mr. 
Gale was elected president of the independent 
line. The company started with 153 sub- 
scribers and in 1899 had grown to an ex- 
change of 354 subscribers. 

Mr. Gale was associated with his father 
during the early days of the Chicago & North- 
eastern railroad, now a part of the Chicago & 
Grand Trunk. His father was vice-president 
of the old road, and was associated with W. L. 
Bancroft in selling the bonds in the east and 
interesting eastern capitalists in the road. In 
conjunction with his father, C. W. Gale, se- 
cured the rights of way for this road between 
Lansing and Flint, and the father lived long 
enough to see a first-class road operating from 
their small beginning. 

Mr. Gale is a liberal or ^^gold democrat" in 
his political faith, and a member of the board 
of public works in Owosso. 

Mr. Gale married Miss Florence McKee, 
daughter of Robert McKee, at Laingsburg, 
Michigan, in 1870. He has two children: 
Maud A. Gale is in the literary department 
of the University of Michigan and Robert I. 
attending the high school at Owosso. 

Mr. Gale is not associated with any frater- 
nal order. He is a representative capitalist 
and farmer of Owosso. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



288 



COUTANT, ARTHUR S. If there is 
any class of men to whom the term "Men of 
Progress" applies with especial .appropriate- 
ness, it is the printers and editors. Guten- 
berg was essentially a man of progress when 
he put his types and his primitive press to 
work and started the intellectual world of 
Europe on a new career. Caxton, the earliest 
English printer, was a man of progress in his 
day. Dr. Franklin, one of the first to ply the 
art in America, was a man of progress. So 
was Horace Greeley and so was Thurlow 
Weed, both leaders of public opinion, through 
the press, fifty years ago. But omitting mere 
personal mention, the press of today is the 
great agent of progress, and the men who min- 
ister to the public, through the press, are cer- 
tainly men of progress. The influence of the 
press in any particular case is necessarily lim- 
ited by its field, but within the range of their 
circulation, iew, if any, hold a higher rank 
than do The Enterprise and The Tribune, 
published in the little city of Mt. Pleasant, 
Michigan, under the management of Mr. Ar- 
thur S. Coutant. 

Mr. Coutant sprang from the Western Re- 
serve in the State of Ohio, having been born 
in Huron county, in 1854. At the age of 
nine years, with four younger children, he 
was left fatherless. His early life was a 
severe struggle and a succession of hard 
knocks, but he insisted upon securing a good 
education, and hard, persistent work has re- 
warded his efforts. He is one of the many 
Michigan men who have made their own way 
in the world and the influential position which 
he holds at home and in the State, tells better 
than words could how successful he has been. 
Mr. Coutant is a printer from the ground up. 
He came to Michigan in 1872 and served an 
apprenticeship to the art preservative in the 
office of the Greenville Independent. He 
then attended the public schools for five years, 
graduating therefrom with high honors, and 
is also an undergraduate of Oberlin College. 
In 1887 he purchased the Mount Pleasant 
Enterprise and five years later the Enterprise 
absorbed the Northwestern Tribune, pub- 
lished in the same city, both being Republi- 
can papers. A Republican in politics, he has 
always taken a lively interest in political 
affairs and has served four years as a member 
of the Republican State Central Committee, 
a member and secretary of the Congressional 
Committee of the Eleventh District, and has 
been a member of the Isabella' County Repub- 
lican Committee for a number of years and 




ARTHUR S. COUTANT. 

has served as its chairman. In September, 
1897, he was appointed postmaster at Mt. 
Pleasant by President McKinley, and gives 
his personal attention to the management of 
the office, besides publishing both of the news- 
papers above mentioned, which will certainly 
entitle him to rank among the busy men of 
this busy age. 

Mr. Coutant was one of the twelve citizens 
of Mt. Pleasant who staked their entire for^ 
tunes and future upon the establishment of 
the Central Michigan Normal School at Mt. 
Pleasant, and was one of the foremost of the 
twelve to push to a successful issue the mak- 
ing of that fine school a state institution. He 
has for years taken an active interest in the 
Republican Newspaper Association of Michi- 
gan, %i which he served two years as vice- 
president. His society connections are : Mem- 
ber of Presbyterian Church, Wabon Lodge, 
F. & A. M.; Mt. Pleasant Chapter, R. A.M.; 
Ithaca Council, R. & S. M.; Mt. Pleasant 
Chapter, O. E. S.; Mt. Pleasant Lodge, L O. 
O. F.; Lipsico Council, Royal Arcanum; Mi 
Pleasant Tent, K O. T. M.; Slagle Trout 
Club, and member Executive Oonamittee* 
Michigan Press Association. 

Mr. Coutant was married in Decembfif, 
1881, to Miss Anna M. Satteriee, of Green- 
ville, and to them two children have beea 
bom, a daughter and a son, aged w^pmiMfy 
12 and 10 rears. 



256 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




FRANK M. STEWART. 

STEWART, FRANK M. Frank M. 
Stewart, president of the First National 
Bank of Hillsdale, Michigan, a respected 
citizen of that city, and engaged in many 
important and flourishing business enter- 
prises there, was born August 20, 1852, in 
New Ilp.ven, Ohio. He is of Scotch-Irish 
descent. His father was Albert G. Stew^art 
and his mother Elizabeth M. Johnson. 

As a boy, Mr. Stewart received his educa- 
tion in various cities, attending school in 
New Haven, Ohio, first, and when he was 
eight years of age and his family moved to 
BuflFalo, New York, he attended the public 
schools of that city until his fifteentk year. 
He worked for the first time on the Buffalo 
Commercial-Advertiser as a carrier, having- 
a route which paid him about $1 a week and 
42 subscribers to look after* When he Avas 
15 he took one term during the evenings at 
Bryant & Stratton's business college in Buf- 
falo, and in the fall of that year his parents 
came to Michigan and took up their residence 
in Hillsdale. 

Here his father began business as a pro- 
duce dealer, having already established a 
branch in Buffalo, and the boy resumed his 



studies in the schools of that city until July 
5, 1868, when he found work as a janitor 
and errand boy in the First National Bank, 
of which he is now^ the president. His sal- 
ary for the first year was $200, but he was 
promoted the next year to collection clerk 
and given an increase of salary. He worked 
hard and earnestly and the directors of the 
bank recognized his efforts by a steady ad- 
vancement of his position. He was made 
bookkeeper, teller, assistant cashier, cashier, 
and in January, 1881, was given his present 
position of president. 

He was but a young man when this honor 
was accorded him^, an honor that seldom 
comes to one so youthful and is generally re- 
served for gray hairs. He was considered 
at that time the youngest national bank presi- 
dent in the United States. 

Mr. Stewart has always been a member of 
the Republican party. In 1898 he was the 
choice of the Republicans of Hillsdale county 
for Congress from the Third Congressional 
District. The convention had great difficulty 
in settling upon a candidate for this honor, 
and voted 333 times before a choice was 
made. This was a record-breaker at that 
time. The people of Hillsdale county did 
not change their vote, but supported Mr. 
Stewart to a man until the final ballot, when 
Mr. Washington (Jardner was declared the 
choice of the convention. This convention 
will be long remembered by the people of 
Hillsdale county and those who participated 
in the exciting scenes that occurred during 
its session. 

September 20, 1877, Mr. Stewart married 
Miss Elizabeth M. Henry, daughter of Simon 
J. Henry, at Hillsdale, Michigan. He has 
three children, namely: Mabelle, Clifford A. 
and Waldron Stewart. The first named is 
attending Hillsdale College and the latter 
two the high school in that city. Mr. Stew- 
art w^as mayor of Hillsdale for one term and 
declined re-nomination. Has been alderman 
several terms and also city treasurer. Is a 
member of the board of control. State Public 
School, Coldwater, Michigan. He is presi- 
dent of the Omega Portland Cement Co., 
Jonesville, Michigan, a director in the Bu- 
channan Screen Co. and Hillsdale Grocery 
Co. He belongs to the F. and A. M.; I. O. 
O. F. and B. P. 0. E. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



257 



CARTOA^,HOK JOHN JAY. John Jay 
Carton was born in Clayton township, Genesee 
county, Michigan, November 8, 1856. He 
Avas one of a family of thirteen children and 
he commenced to look out for himself before 
he had reached his 'teens. The elder Carton 
was a farmer with no bank account, and hav- 
ing such a large family, it was necessary that 
every member of it should turn in and assist 
in the maintainence of the farm and its people. 
John, with his other brothers and sisters, 
i worked to this end, in season and out. The 
boy obtained a fairly good start toward an 
education by attending the neighboring school 
during the winter months and when he reached 
the age of thirteen he determined to bid fare- 
well for a time to the paternal roof and en- 
deavor to make for himself a small place in 
the business world. He journeyed into the 
neighboring county of Shiawassee, where he 
found employment on a farm where he could 
do chores and attend school, being given his 
board in return for his work. Still desirous 
of bettering his condition he went to the vil- 
lage of Flushing, where he worked in a drug 
store for one year. He then attended school 
in the village of Flushing and city of Flint 
for two years, supporting himself and paying 
his tuition by doing various kinds of work after 
school hours and on days when school was not 
in session. He Avas then competent to teach, 
and secured positions as school teacher in the 
district schools, following this profession for 
five terms and devoting his spare time to the 
study of law, borrowing his law books from his 
friends at Flint. In the spring of 1877 he 
returned to Flushing, where he accepted the 
first position that was offered to him, that of 
clerk in a drug store at $12.50 a month. He 
had to open up at 5 o'clock in the morning, 
but at the end of five months he had another 
offer, that of bookkeeper in the general mer- 
chandise firm of Niles & Cotcher. Here he 
remained until he was nominated for County 
Clerk on the Republican ticket in 1880 and 
elected to that oflSce. He w^as renominated 
and again elected in 1882, leading his ticket 
in the number of votes cast for any candidate. 




HON. JOHN JAY CARTON. 

During his two terms as clerk he continued his 
law studies, and August 21, 1884, he was ad- 
mitted to the bar by Judge William Newton, 
ilr. Carton at once formed a partnership with 
Judge Durand and under the firm name of 
Durand & Carton commenced practice. The 
firm still conducts an excellent law business 
at Flint. 

Mr. Carton was elected to the Legislature of 
1898-99 from the Flint district by a large 
majority, and was a candidate for speaker, be- 
ing defeated by one vote. He owns a fine 
farm of 200 acres in Clayton township, which 
includes the original farm owned by his 
father, and which as a boy he helped to clear 
up and work. He married, November 22, 
1898, Mrs. Addie C. Pierson, daughter of 
Charles Wager, of Oakland county, Michigan, 
at Ukiah, California. 

Mr. Carton is Past Master of Genesee 
Lodge, No. 174, F. & A. M., a member of 
Genesee Valley Commandery, Knights Tem- 
plar ; Michigan Sovereign Consistory, Scottish 
Rite; Moslem Temple, Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, Detroit; an Elk, Maccabee, Forester, 
Knight of Loyal Guard and was Grand MaB-^ 
ter of the Michigan Grand Lodge, F. & A. M;, 
in 18Q6. 



258 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




LEWIS RANSOM FISKE, D. D., LL.D. 

EISKE, LEWIS RANSOM, D. D., LL. D. 

Dr. Fiske is essentially a Michigan man and 
has made his impress upon the civil, moral 
and intellectual life of the state. His first 
American ancestry came from England in 
1637, settling in Wenham, Massachusetts. 
His parents, James and Eleanor (Ransom) 
Fiske, were residents of Penfield^ Monroe 
county, N. Y., where the son was born Decem- 
ber 24th, 1825. Removing to Ooldwater, 
Mich., in 1835, they settled on a farm which 
is now within the corporate limits of the city. 
Passing over earlier studies, the younger 
Fiske spent the college year 1845-6 at the then 
Wesleyan Seminary and Collegiate Institute 
at Albion, since Albion College, of which, 
later on, he was the honored president for over 
twenty years, resigning in January, 1898. Af- 
ter four years in the University, he received 
his Bachelor's Degree in 1850. He had begun 
the study of law, which was his intended pur- 
suit, but in the fall of 1850 he accepted the 
position of professor of Natural Science at Al- 
bion, resigning in 1853 to accept a like position 
at the ISTormal School at Ypsilanti. In 185 6 he 
was elected Professor of Chemistry in the State 
Agricultural College. His purposed pursuit 



of the law gave away under his educational 
work, which he found congenial, and he de- 
cided to enter the ministry of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. He filled pastorates at 
Jackson, Ann iVrbor and Detroit, from 1863 
to 1877, when he was elected President of Al- 
bion College. For five years from January, 
1875, he was editor of the Michigan Christian 
Advocate. The degrees represented by the 
initial letters, D. D. and LL. D., were con- 
ferred upon him respectively by Albion Col- 
lege in 1873 and by the State University in 
1879. Dr. Fiske has been six times elected 
delegate to the quadrennial general confer- 
ence of the M. E. Church, held respectively 
in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Isew 
York, Omaha and Cleveland. In 1891 he 
was a member of the ecumenical conference in 
Washington. For sixteen years he has been 
trustee of the board of education which super- 
vises all the educational work of the church. 
This board has its headquarters in 'New York 
City. In the year 1889 he was president of 
the State Teachers' Association. He has also 
been president of the College Presidents' Asso- 
ciation of the M. E. Church, is president of the 
Detroit Annual Conference (corporate), vice- 
president of the Michigan Publishing Com- 
pany of Detroit, of which company he was 
president before leaving Detroit. 

In a business way he is a director in the Al- 
bion State Bank. 

Dr. Fiske is a well known contributor to the 
standard literature of the country. In 1898 
he published a most successful work entitled 
"Echos from College Platform." Another 
book, '"Among the Professions," is just 
printed. He is now engaged in a third work, 
''Man Building." The ruling thought in pro- 
jecting and bringing out the three works has 
been the hope that they may be a guiding help 
to the rising generation, in the foundation of 
character, fitting them for usefulness in life. 
Dr. Fiske has been twice married, first in 1852 
at HoAvell, Mich., to Miss Elizabeth Koss 
Spence, a lady of Scotch birth, who died in 
1879, and in 1880, to Mrs. Helen M. Davis, 
of Detroit, who died in 1896. He has three 
sons, all men of mature years and men of af- 
fairs; and one daughter, the wife of Otis A. 
Leonard, of Albion. 



=»!«■ 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



259 



LYON, FEANK A. The paternal ances- 
tors of Mr. I^on were Scotch, his great-grand- 
father coming to this country in 1771, and 
locating at Wallworth, Wayne county, N. Y. 
His grandfather, Daniel Lyon, was a Baptist 
minister, and his father, Kewton T., was a 
farmer, both of Wallworth, where Frank A. 
was born January 4th, 1855. The family 
removed to Michigan a year later, settling on 
a farm in the township of Quincy, Branch 
county. Frank A. attended the neighbor- 
hood schools until eighteen years of age. He 
then attended a winter and spring term at the 
High School in the village of Quincy, walking 
from his home to the school, a distance of four 
miles, in the morning and back again at night. 
He secured a teacher's certificate and taught a 
district school and in 1877 taught the graded 
school at Girard, Branch county. Later he 
attended the Xorthern Indiana Normal School 
at Valparaiso, Indiana. He learned the trade 
of a carpenter, and alternated his labors, 
whether of study or teaching, with farm or 
carpenter work, as occasion or convenience 
suggested. Having saved a little money, he 
began the study of law, w4th Hon. Charles 
ITpson of Coldwater, and was admitted to the 
bar in February, 1880. Following his admis- 
sion, he served for a few months as clerk of 
the Winnebago Indian Agency in Nebraska. 
His first essay at active practice was in Mont- 
calm county, w^here he opened an office in 
J^ovember, 1880. Two years later he removed 
to Stanton, in the same county, and formed a 
co-partnership with M. C. Palmer, with whom 
he continued until 1886, when, by reason of 
poor health, he returned to Quincy, remaining 
there until July, 1891, when he removed his 
office to Hillsdale, succeeding A. B. St. John 
in the law practice, and has since resided there. 
He is also interested in mercantile business at 
Quincy and is a stockholder 'in the Quincy 
Knitting Works and in the Omega Portland 




FRANK A. LYON. 

Cement Company at Jonesville, being attor- 
ney for the latter. 

While at Stanton Mr. Lyon served on the 
County Board of School Examiners for three 
years. He was elected Circuit Court Commis- 
sioner in Branch county for one term and was 
Village Attorney of Quincy for one year, de- 
clining a re-election in both cases. During 
his residence in Hillsdale, he has been fre- 
quently solicited to stand for election to official 
position, which he invariably declined, until, 
contrary to his wish, he was placed in nomina- 
tion by the Eepublicans as their candidate for 
the State Senate at the election in 1868, from 
the district comprising the counties of Hills- 
dale, Branch and St. Joseph. In the Senate 
he was chairman of the important committee 
on judiciary at the session of 1899. He is a 
member of the Masonic fraternity and of 
Eureka Commandery Knights Templar. 

Mr. Lyon has been married twice. His 
first wife, to whom he was married in 1878, 
died in 1881. In 1885 Miss Emma Fink of 
Ionia became Mrs. Lyon. They have one 
child, Vivian E. 



260 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




CLAUDE WIX^LARD CASE. 

CASE, CLATJDE WILLARD. Claude 
Willard Case, cashier of the Munising State 
Bank, Munising, Michigan, was born in 
Brighton, Mich., September 3rd, 1861. His 
father, Spaulding M. Case, was a merchant in 
that village, and a member of the Michigan 
Legislature in 1851-52. Claude Willard di- 
vided his time during his early youth between 
attending the village school and working on a 
farm. His father died when the boy was but 
six years old, so at the age of fourteen he found 
himself obliged to start out in the world to 
make his own living. He found employment 
with W. C. Hawes, clerking at $3.00 per week 
in his dry goods store at Lansing. With a little 
assistance from his mother tfrom time to time 
he managed to live and keep himself fairly 
well clad. His next position was more remu- 
nerative, that of bookkeeper for E. Bement & 
Sons, Lansing and later he was given the posi- 
tion of cashier with B. E. Simons, of the same 
city. The next year he engaged with James 
Nail & Co., of Detroit, as check and collection 
clerk, and in 1879 Ducharme, Fletcher & Co., 
wholesale hardware merchants, employed him 
as city entry clerk and later advanced him to 
county entry clerk. In the spring of 1880 his 



health failed and he went to Kansas to re- 
cuperate. That summer he herded cattle on 
a ranch near Atchison, Kansas, and regaining 
his health, the following fall, pending em- 
ployment in an office, clerked in the grocery 
store of John Perkins for a few weeks. He 
then found a position in the grain commission 
office of Halsey & Co., at Atchison, as book- 
keeper, and upon their failure, was employed 
as tracer clerk in the Missouri Pacific freight 
office until offered a position Avith the Atchi- 
son Savings Bank as bookkeeper. 

Later, he kept books for a bank in Billings, 
Montana, and from that position went into the 
employ of the Supply Company on the North- 
ern Pacific road, where he remained until the 
spring of 1883. The following year was spent 
in the bank of Nelson Story, at Bozeman, 
after which he left the banking business to be- 
come a merchandise broker, selling to the hard- 
ware and grocery trade in Montana and Idaho. 
In September, 1884, he returned to the bank- 
ing business temporarily as bookkeeper in the 
Eirst National Bank of Helena, Montana, 
coming thence, December, 1884, to Michigan 
to take position as bookkeeper for Newberry 
& McMillan, of Detroit, and on November 
5th, 1890, removed to Newberry, Michigan, 
to take the management of the Newberry Eur- 
nace, which plant was largely owned and con- 
trolled by Newberry & McMillan. 

The propertv has since passed into the hands 
of P. H. Griffin, of Buffalo, and Mr. Case re- 
mains in charge. 

Mr. Case is a Republican. In 1894 he was 
appointed a member of the Board of Building 
Commissioners of the Upper Peninsula Hos- 
pital for the Insane, at Newberry, which insti- 
tution he was largely instrumental in bringing 
to that place, and in 1895 was appointed one of 
the Trustees of the Hospital for the long term 
of six years. In 1894 he was president of the 
village of Newberry, and member of Board of 
Supervisors of Luce county. He was the or- 
ganizer of the Munising State Bank, which 
came into existence July, 1896. Mr. Case 
married Miss Lillie Belle Spencer at Howell, 
Michigan, in 1889. They have two children, 
Euth Margaret and Dorothy Serena, aged re- 
spectively nine and five years. Mr. Case is a 
Mason, also belongs to the Elks, Oddfellows 
and Eoresters. Mr. Case's mother (nee Serena 
Lawson) resides with him at Munising. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



261 



CAEROLL, THOMAS FRANCIS. The 

name of Carroll associates itself at once with 
Ireland, from which the father and mother of 
Thomas F., James and Mary (Kennedy) Car- 
roll, came in 1845. The CarroUs are of the 
same original stock as those of the same name 
who settled in Maryland in the seventeenth 
century, of which Charles Carroll, one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
and Archbishop Carroll, well known in Revo- 
lutionary history, were representatives. 
Thomas F. Carroll, senior in the law firm of 
Carroll, Turner & Kirwin, at Grand Rapids, 
was born at Chili Centre, N^. Y., Nov. 23rd, 
1854. His parents settled in the township of 
Arlington, Van Buren county, Michigan, 
when he was a small child, and where his 
father began chopping out a home. He re- 
ceived his education in the district school, and 
afterwards in the village school at Lawrence. 
At the age of seventeen he secured a teacher's 
certificate and began teaching a district school, 
serving a year at the compensation of thirty 
dollars a month, being the first money he could 
call his own. He taught in the village school 
at Lawrence during the years 1875, '76 and 
'77, working on a farm in summer. During 
these years he began reading law, having 
bought a second-hand copy of Blackstone. In 
the summer of 1876 he went to Grand Rapids 
and read law during his school vacation, but 
declined employment in the schools there for 
the year 1878, which was tendered him. Re- 
turning to Crand Rapids he continued his law 
studies in the office of Hughes, O'Brien & 
Smiley and was admitted to the bar in 1879. 
A law partnership with Charles M. McLaren 
was soon after formed, which existed until the 
fall of 1881, when he associated himself with 
Isaac M. Turner, this partnership continuing 
until Mr. Tiirner's death in 1895. Joseph 
Kirwin then became a member of the firm, 
under the firm name of Carroll, Turner & Kir- 
win, Mr. Turner's name being continued as a 
mark of respect for the man. 

Mr. Carroll had many early struggles, 
which, however, have been substantially re- 
warded, as is evident from the fact of his 




TH0MA.8 FRANCIS CARROLL. 

being now a large holder of real estate and a 
director in the Fifth National Bank. He is also 
a member and director of the Grand Rapids 
Board of Trade, a member of the Peninsular 
Club of Grand Rapids, and of the Michigan 
Bar Association. He was Assistant Prosecu- 
ting Attorney of Kent County 1883-6 ; he was 
secretary of the Democratic State Central 
Committee in 1889-90, member of the execu- 
tive committee of the Democratic State Cen- 
tral Committee from 1890-94, chairman of the 
Democratic campaign committee for the Fifth 
Congressional District, 1892-4, Postmaster of 
Grand Rapids, 1894-8 under President Cleve- 
land, and in 1898 was elected chairman of the 
Kent County Democratic Committee. He 
stands high at the bar and as a business man. 
He is very popular with all classes and particu- 
larly with the labor element, as is evidenced 
by the fact that he was Labor Day orator in 
1897 and 1898 at Grand Rapids. 

In 1880 Mr. Carroll married Miss Ella, 
daughter of William B. Remington, of Grand 
Rapids. After her death in 1882 he remained 
a widower until 1889, when Miss Julia A. 
Mead of Grand Rapids, only daughter of the 
late Major A. B. Watson, became Mrs. Car- 
roll. He has two children, Charles by the first 
marriage, and Katharine by the second. 



262 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 



COLE, THOMAS FKEDERICK. Gen- 
erations of the Cole family have followed the 
trade of miners, in this country and in their 
native land, England. Thomas Frederick 
Cole, of Ironwood, Michigan, is the general 
superintendent of the Oliver Iron Mining 
Company, which has properties in the Upper 
Peninsula and in Minnesota. He is in charge 
oi the Norrie mine, the North Norrie mine. 
East Norrie mine and the Pabst mine, all sit- 
uated around Ironwood, and the Tilden mine 
at Bessemer, Michigan. 

He was born at Cliff mine, Keweenaw 
County, Michigan, July 19, 1862. When 
he was but 6 years of age his father was killed 
by an explosion in the Phoeni;x mine, and 
so it became necessary when the lad was old 
enough to work, for him to help support the 
family. He obtained a few years' school- 
ing at Phoenix mine, and when 8 years old was 
put to work in the rock house of the Phoenix 
mine picking out the copper rock from the 
rock hoisted from the mine at 50 cents per 
day. The mother had a hard struggle to 
keep the little family together after the 
death of the father, and every penny brought 
into the house was expended to buy wood 
and provisions. For eighteen months the lit- 
tle fellow sorted rock, and then secured a 
place at $18 a month in the stamp mill of the 
Cliff mine and worked there for three 
years. He then found employment on the 
railroad operated by the Calumet & Hecla 
Mining Company, commencing as a track 
laborer, then becoming a switch tender, 
brakeman and finally yard man, remaining 
with the railroad for eight years. During 



this time he attended the night school in 
Calumet and learned to write a plain business 
hand. Many nights during the long winter 
months he would have to go direct to school 
from his work, ofttimes without his supper, 
but he earned enough to pay his tuition 
and also support the family. He was then 
given a position in the general office of the 
Calumet & Hecla as bookkeeper and as such 
he worked for two years, resigning in 1886 
to accept a similar position at an increase of 
wages with the Chapin mine at Iron Moun- 
tain, Michigan. After three years' time in 
this office he was made superintendent of 
the Queen group of iron mines at Negaunee. 
He remained with the company until the 
fall of 1897 when the firm of Corrigan, Mc- 
Kinney & Co. secured control of these iron 
mines. In 1897 he was tendered the posi- 
tion of superintendent of the Norrie mines at 
Ironwood, which he accepted and later he 
was made general superintendent of the Oliver 
Iron Mining Company's interests in the Upper 
Peninsula and Minnesota, which position 
he now occupies. The Oliver Iron Min- 
ing Company's properties in Minnesota and 
Michigan consist of over thirty iron mines, 
and thousands of men are under Mr. Cole's 
direction. In the Upper Peninsula the 
Oliver Company is a rival of the Calumet 
& Hecla, only the latter company is in the 
copper while the Oliver is in the iron district. 
Mr. Cole married Miss Elcey Hoatson, daugh- 
ter of Thomas Hoatson, who has charge of 
the underground work of the Calumet & 
Hecla Mining Company at Calumet. They 
have two children. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



263 



DANAHEE, CORNELIUS DOUGLAS. 
One of the largest owners and operators of 
timber lands in the State of Michigan is Cor- 
nelius Douglas Danaher, of DoUarville, Mich- 
igan. The firm of Danaher & Melendy is 
well known in the Upper Peninsula, and they 
own and control large tracts of valuable tim- 
ber country not only in this state but in Wis- 
consin as well. The firm also has an office 
and place of business in Ludington, Michigan. 
C. D. Danaher was born near Kenosha, 
Wisconsin, August 2, 1859. His father 
came from near Limerick, Ireland, where the 
iainilj lived for many generations. 

The boy was educated in the district school 
near his home, and until he was fourteen years 
of age his educational facilities were limited to 
those usually found in district schools at that 
period. His father owned a farm but as he 
had been a railroad and lumbering contractor 
in the past, he soon sold the farm and removed 
to the town of Kenosha, where for two years 
his children enjoyed the benefits of the city 
schools. 

After two years' residence in Kenosha, the 
family decided to move to Michigan, where 
the father undertook a large lumbering con- 
tract near White Hall, Michigan, and at the 
completion of it in 1871 removed to Luding- 
ton and engaged in the lumbering manufac- 
turing business on his own account. 

The F. & P. M. railroad was then advanc- 
ing into Ludington, and as Cornelius was 16 
years of age, he secured a job driving a sup- 
ply team for the construction gang at $2 a 
round trip. When he could make two trips 
a day he felt that he was making excellent 



wages, and on his way to a comfortable com- 
petence. When he reached his seventeenth 
year he engaged in busifless on his own ac- 
count. He had saved a little money and he 
borrowed some at 8 per cent, from a friend 
in Chicago, Illinois, for which he also paid 
2i per cent, commission, and he then com- 
menced "looking" timber lands, buying and 
selling tracts of pine and in less than three 
jears, by dint of 'hard and constant work, he 
managed to save $17,000, clear profit, after 
repaying the loan. 

In the meantime his father was in financial 
difficulties, as the panic of 1873 had severely 
crippled the firm of Danaher & Melendy 
Co.; so Cornelius and his brother jointly con- 
tributed their savings to the company, and as- 
sumed charge of their father's interests under 
the same name, Danaher & Melendy Co. 
They devoted all their time and efforts to put- 
ting the enterprise on its financial legs again, 
and their youth and determination were suc- 
cessful. They commenced their operations at 
J^ewberry, in the Upper Peninsula, in 1895, 
and today their mill at that place is considered 
(me of the most prosperous and modern 
equipped plants in Michigan. 

Mr. Danaher married, on March 12, 1879, 
Lillie, daughter of Owen Taylor, one of the 
pioneer lumbermen on the Pere Marquette 
river. They have three children, Lillian, 
aged 19, attending the University at Chicago, 
and Margarette and Cornelia, at home, Mr. 
Danaher was appointed member of the Board 
of Control of the Upper Peninsula Hospital 
for the Insane at Newberry, January, 1897, 
and resigned June 16, 1899. He is a Roman 
Catholic and a menrber of the Elks. 



264 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




HON. WILLIAM HOLMES. 

• HOLMES, HON. WILLIAM. William 
Holmes, of Menominee, was born at Mirami- 
che. New Brunswick, April 16, 1830. His 
father was a farmer and lumberman, who 
came to this country from Port Glasgow, 
Scotland, and settled in New Brunswick in 
1804. In all, young Holmes received about 
eighteen months' schooling in a district 
school, and at 10 years of age he commenced' 
work driving tlie supply team for the lumber 
camps. At 16 years of age he left home with 
$4 in his pocket, loaned him by his sister, 
and then started to walk to Bangor, Maine, a 
distance of over 350 miles. He worked four 
days in a hay field on the way down, at fifty 
cents a day, but the farmer had to drive 
twenty miles to Frederickstown in order to 
get money to pay the boy, and he charged 
him $1 for the trouble. Young Holmes re- 
sumed his tramp and landed in Old Town, 
Maine. He slept on a bench in the hotel office, 
earned a little money digging a cellar at Still- 
water, Maine, and reached Bangor. Here 
he borrowed $3 from a friend and went into 
the woods for the winter, chopping for a 
firm operating on the Fish river, Aroostook, 



Maine. He worked two months for the finii 
of Jewett & March, then returned to his 
home in New Brunswick, and worked 
one year. Then, at the age of 21, he 
returned to Maine and worked two more years 
for Jewett & March, running camp the last 
year. In the winter of 1855 he ran a logging 
camp at Escanaba, Michigan, for N. Luding- 
ton & (Company, then took charge of the 
camps at Bum River, Minnesota, for Jona- 
than Chase, returning to Escanaba and work- 
ing at Upper Mill and Flat Rock. In Feb- 
ruary he was summoned to Taylor Falls, 
Minn., by the death of a relative. It was 
before the day of railroads in that region, and 
the trip was made on the ice with an Indian 
mail train of dogs to Menominee, thence to 
Green Bay, and thence by various stages to 
St. Faul and Taylor Falls. He worked a 
her home to Bangor, Maine. He worked a 
while lumbering in Minnesota, and then re- 
turned to Escanaba. In 1857 he joined forces 
with Samuel M. Stephenson and took a con- 
tract getting out logs for N. Ludington & Co. 
There were only two camps in operation that 
winter, and Stephenson drove the ox team tot- 
ing supplies into camp, while Holmes looked 
after the men. The next year they operated 
at Menominee, and Stephenson bought an in- 
terest in the Kirby, Carpenter Company, lum- 
ber manufacturers, and the following year 
Mr. Holmes was put in charge of the logging 
interests of the company, and was superin- 
tendent of logging operations for thirty-eight 
years. In January, 1897, he built a logging 
road of seventy-five miles, and has been work- 
ing on logging contracts with great success 

ever since. 

In politics Mr. Holmes is a Republican. He 
was mayor of Menominee in 1897, '98 and 
'99, and supervisor in 1896. He is a director 
in the Lumbern:ien's National Bank of Me- 
nominee, and one of the original stockholders 
and organizers of the Menominee Electric 
Railroad & Power Company. He belongs to 
Menominee Commandery, K. T., and Ahmed 
Temple, Marquette. Mr. Holmes married 
Miss Augusta J., daughter of Alden Chand- 
ler, July 12, 1869, at Escanaba, and has five 
children. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



265 



STANTO?^, FRANK McMILLAN. 

Agent Frank McMillan Stanton, of the At- 
lantic, Baltic, Central and Phoenix copper 
mines, in the Upper Peninsula, is a New 
Yorker by birth and education. He ac- 
quired bis knowledge of the profession of 
mining engineer, in the School of Mines of 
Columbia College, in New York city, and has 
supplemented his knowledge with a practical 
experience in the copper mines of Michigan. 

His father, John Stanton, is one of the best 
known men in the copper country. 

John Stanton's experience as a mining 
engineer commenced on the other side of the 
water. He was engaged in this profession 
in Bristol, England. He came to this 
country in 1835 to take charge of the 
iron mines at Dover, New Jersey. Later the 
elder Stanton took charge of a number of 
copper properties in Maryland, Virginia and 
Tennessee from 1852 until 1862, when the 
Confederate government confiscated the 
properties. 

In 1864 John Stanton came into Michi- 
gan and made his way into the copper coun- 
try. His first interests were in the Central 
mine, and in 1870 he purchased a controlling 
interest in the Atlantic mining properties, 
which were made to prosper under his man- 
agement. He is also interested in the Bal- 
tic, Mohawk, Michigan, Winona, Central and 
Wolverine mines. He was one of the 
founders of the New York Mining Stock & 
Petroleum Exchange, and the first president 
of the exchange. 

Frank McMillan Stanton was born in New 
York city May 23, 1865, and he attended the 
Twentieth Street public school, and graduated 
from the Columbia Grammar School in 1881. 
He then entered the School of Mines of Col- 
umbia College, where he took a six years' 
course, and from which he graduated in 1887. 
In June of that year young Stanton came to 
Michigan, as mining engineer for the Centrar 
Copper mines in Keweenaw county, and 
also as agent pro tem. Six months later he 
returned to New York city and studied under 
Professor Hallock, of the New York Gas 




PRANK MeMILLAN STANTON. 

Company, and that winter returned to Michi- 
gan to become a mining engineer on the At- 
lantic mine property. In 1889 he was made 
agent for the Atlantic mine. 

Frank McM. Stanton is a director in the Na- 
tional Bank of Houghton, vice-president of 
the Mining Gazette Company, of Houghton, 
and a director of the New Douglass Hotel 
Company, of the same place. He was super- 
visor of Keweenaw county for several teims 
and was also chairman of the building com- 
mittee during the building of the $100,000 
steel bridge over Portage Lake. He is a mem- 
ber of the American Society of Civil En- 
gineers, and also of the Mechanical En- 
gineers' Society, the Western Society of En- 
gineers, and one of the board of manage- 
ment of the American Institute of Mining 
Engineer^. His great-grandfather, Benjamin 
Wertervelt, served during the Revolution in 
the American army, so Mr. Stanton- is a mem- 
ber of the Sons of the Revolution, served 
full term in the 7th regiment. National Guard, 
State of New York, and now a member of 
the 7th Regiment Veteran Association. He 
also belongs to the Psi Upsilon Society of 
Columbia College, and the Sons of St. An- 
drew's Society. Mr. Stanton makes his home 
at Atlantic Mine, Michigan. 



wm 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




THEOPHILUS JOHN LANGLrOIS. M. D. 

LANGLOIS, THEOPHILUS JOHN,M.D. 
From Kouen, France, in the Province of Noi^ 
mandy, the ancestors of Dr. Theophilns John 
Langlois came to this country in 1720 and 
twenty years later settled in Acadia. His 
great grandfather was one of the ninety who, 
during the etirly troubles of that colony, es- 
caped through New Brunswick, crossing the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence in flat boats of their 
own construction, and locating, finally about 
t]iirty-six miles north of Montreal. 

During the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-38, 
Dr. Langlois's father wajs an active member of 
the Kevolutionarj party, and at that time 
was forced to seek refuge in the United States. 
He came to Michigan and settled in Grosse 
He, where, September 7, 1840, Theophilus 
John Langlois was born. After the rebellion 
was over he went back to the old homestead 
near Montreal. The following year his wife 
died and the boy was taken care of by his 
grandparents, while the father, touched with 
the gold- fever of 1849, went to California to 
seek his fortune. He remained away seven- 
teen years. In the meantime the boy grew up, 
attending the district school about two miles 



from the farm, and when he reached the age 
of fourteen he started out in the world for him- 
self, securing the humble position of janitor 
and instructor in the College of Joliette in the 
Province of Quebec. Leaving college after 
graduation in 1862, he removed to Amherst- 
burg, Ontario, where in 1863 he was made 
principal of the R. C. Separate School and 
remained such until 1870. In June, 1865, he 
had commenced the study of medicine with 
Dr. Walter Lambert, where he speedily 
acquired a good knowledge of the Hippo 
cratic art, so resigning his position in the 
schools in 1870 he devoted his entire time to 
the study of medicine attending the Detroit 
Medical College. While still in his first year 
he took the final examination and stood first 
in the class. The faculty gave him a tes- 
timonial letter and would have given him his 
diploma had the rules of the college per- 
mitted. He acted during the following year 
as an assistant to Dr. Edward W. Jenks, then 
the president of the faculty, and graduated in 
1871. Upon receiving his degree, Dr. Lang- 
lois opened his office in Wyandotte, where to- 
day he is the oldest practitioner and enjoys 
an extensive practice. 

Dr. Langlois married twice. Miss Maria 
Bertrand, of Amherstburg, was he first wife. 
Of their two children Eugenie is now Mrs. D. 
W. Koberts of Cleveland, and Napoleon T. is 
a practicing physician in Wyandotte. His 
second wife was Miss Elizabeth Schuhmacher 
of Wyandotte. Their only child, Elfrida, 
lives at home. 

Dr. Langlois is a Mason of high standing, 
a member of Damascus Commandery, No. 42, 
K. T., Michigan Sovereign Consistory and 
Moslem Temple, all of Detroit. He is also 
connected with the I. O. O. F., Royal Ar- 
canum, Knights of Honor, A. O. LT. W., K. 
O. T. M., and the National Union. He was 
elected mayor of Wyandotte in 1874 and re- 
elected to that office in 1888. He was city 
physician from 1875 to 1881, president of the 
Water Board, 1889-90-91-92, and president 
of the Board of Public Works in 1896-97-98- 
99. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



267 



SHANK, EUSH JESSE, M. D. Dr. 

Rush Jesse Shank was born in Lansing, Michi- 
gan, December 15, 1848, and has lived in 
that citv all his life. His father. Dr. 
Herbert B. Shank, located in Lansing in 
1848, coming from New York state, where 
his father, Isaac Shank, was a farmer living 
in Cayuga county. 

L^p to the age of 14 years, the boy at- 
tended the village school, after which he was 
sent to a Quaker Academy at Union Springs, 
Cayuga county. New York, where he remained 
until he reached the age of 15. In 
this year he became a soldier. The boys of 
Oakwood Academy, in the spring of 1864, 
went down in a body to hear the Hon. Will- 
iam H. Seward address a patriotic meeting. 
In the enthusiasm attending that meeting the 
boys from the academy took an active part, 
and young Shank was so impressed with the 
thought that his services were needed in the 
battle for union, that after the speechmaking 
was over he hurried around to the re- 
cruiting office, where he offered himself as a 
recruit. Pie was accepted and mustered into 
Company C of the 14Sth New York infantry, 
and a few days later was sent to the front with 
his regiment. 

The One Hundred and Forty-eighth New 
York was assigned to the department of the 
Army of the Potomac, where the young sol- 
dier at once came into active service in front 
of Petersburg, A^irginia. With his company 
he participated in the Weldon Raid through 
the enemy's country and for three months lay 
in the trenches before Petersburg. In the 
meantime his father had been detached from 
the Eighth Michigan" as surgeon and detailed 
as recruiting surgeon for central Michigan. 
He wrote to his son saying that if he wanted 
to leave the service he could obtain his dis- 
charge on account of his age, but the young 
man did not answer the letter. He remained 
in the service until he was mustered out at 
Richmond, Virginia, June 22, 1865. 

He returned to Lansing and entered the 
public schools, declining to go to West Point, 
after he had been appointed. He commenced 




RUSH JESSE SHANK, M. D. 

the study of medicine in his father's office, 
entering the Medical Department of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, from which he gradu- 
ated as an M. D. in 1871. He then went 
into partnership with his father, which rela- 
tionship continued for 18 years. 

In 1875 Dr. Shank married Miss Ella 
Williams, daughter of Wm. K. Williams, at 
Lansing, Michigan. They have one daugh- 
ter, Ruth (Mrs. M. W, Montgomery), living 
in Lansing. 

Dr. Shank has taken all the degrees in Ma« 
sonry, including that of Knights Templar. 

He was Department Commander of Michi- 
gan G. A. R., 1874-75, was Commander 
of Charles T. Foster Post, G. A. R., was 
a member of the board of managers of 
Michigan Soldiers' Home, 1887-93; United 
States pension examiner, central Michigan, 
for 10 years, and for several years alderman 
in the city of Lansing. While Department 
Commander of the G. A. R. he was instru- 
mental in drafting and passing a bill through 
the Legislature organizing the Soldiers^ 
Home in this state. 

He is now special aide on the staff of the 
Commander-in-Chief, G. A. R., in charge of 
military instruction in public schools of Michi- 
gan. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




DR. CHARLES STORM HAZELTINE. 

KAZELTINE, DR. CHARLES STORM. 
If there be anything in hereditary, a long line 
of professional ancestors, including doctors, 
lawyers and teachers have transmitted to Dr. 
Ilazeltine elements of character, peculiarly 
fitting him for professional life. His father, 
Gilbert H. Hazeltine, was a noted physician 
and surgeon of Jamestown, N. Y., where he 
practiced for half a century and was widely 
known also as a writer and local historian. 
His grandfather, Laban Hazeltine, was of the 
same profession, and others of* his ancestry 
were prominent in other professions. The 
family were early inhabitants of Vermont. 
Dr. Hazeltine was born at Jamestown, N. Y., 
Oct. 1, 1844, his mother having been Eliza 
C. Boss. It was the wish of his family that he 
should be a physician and his education had 
that destiny in view for him. With an acad- 
emic education acquired at Jamestown, and 
considerable progress in scientific study 
through elementary reading at home, he first 
attended a course of medical lecture^ at the 
University of Michigan, and subsequently en- 
tered the medical department of the Univer- 
sity of Albany, graduating therefrom in 1866. 
He then for a short time attended the hospitals 
and colleges in New York. Following this, 
for six months he had charge of the lying-in 
hospital at Buffalo. He then entered upon an 
active practice at Jamestown, but a physician's 



life proving distasteful to him, he retired from 
it after some eighteen months' trial and en- 
gaged in the drug business. Coming west in 
1872 and stopping at Grand Rapids, he de- 
cided to locate there. He first interested him- 
self in manufacturing, but soon formed a con- 
nection with Charles Shephard in the 
wholesale drug business, under the firm name 
of Shephard & Hazeltine, and from this be- 
ginning was evolved the stock corporation, the 
Hazeltine & Perkins Drug Co., Mr. Shephard 
having sold his interest to Capt. C. G. Perkins, 
of Henderson, Ky., an intimate friend of the 
doctor's. In 1888 Mr. Perkins' interest was 
purchased by Dr. Hazeltine and the business 
continued imder the incorporated name. Un- 
der the management of Dr. Hazeltine, and as a 
natural consequence of honorable business 
methods, the business has acquired a practical 
monopoly of the jobbing drug trade of west- 
ern Michigan and compares favorably in ex- 
tent and influence with its older competitors 
in Detroit and Chicago. 

Dr. Hazeltine is a director in the Grand 
Rapids jS'ational Bank, and has other collateral 
business interests. Politically he was first a 
Republican, but President Cleveland's policy 
in his first term won him over to the Democ- 
racy and he became an enthusiastic Jefferson- 
ian. He was appointed United States Consul 
at Milan, Italy, September 16th, 1893, under 
the second Cleveland administration, a posi- 
tion which he filled with credit both to his 
government and to himself. After a service of 
two years, however, he resigned to resume his 
place in the drug house of which he is the head. 
He is a member of the vestry of St. Mark's 
Church of Grand Rapids, having been its 
junior warden; of the National Wholesale 
Druggists' Association; of the Grand Rapids 
Board of Trade, and of a number of social 
clubs. He is a Knights Templar and member 
of the Mystic Shrine. For many years he was 
an active member of the Board of Trustees of 
Butterworth Hospital and much was due to his 
efforts as its secretary and treasurer in its early 
foundation and the construction of its build- 
ing. 

Dr. Hazeltine has been twice married, his 
first wife having been Miss Ella C. Burnell, 
daughter of Madison Burnell, a noted criminal 
lawyer of western JSTew York, to whom he was 
married at Jamestown, N. Y., in 1868. After 
her death. Miss Anna O. Fox, daughter of 
George H. Fox, of Boston, Mass., became Mrs. 
Hazeltine in 1875. He has three daughters . 
and a son. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



269 



AINSWORTH, CORYDON EVERETT. 
Since the da.ys when Isaac Walton lured the 
trout and grayling from the streams of Eng- 
land with his light tackle and gentle skill, the 
fishing industry has been growing larger every 
year, and the old father of fishermen were he 
alive today, would throw up his hands in hor- 
ror at modern methods, necessary to accommo- 
date the great populations of cities, and sup- 
ply the various markets with quantities of fish. 

The firm of Ainsworth & Ganley, of Sault 
Ste. Marie, controls one of the largest fishing 
industries on the Great Lakes today. From 
an humble beginning it has grown in size and 
output year by year. 

Corydon Everett Ainsworth is the senior 
member of this firm. He was born at Cape 
Vincent, Js^ew York, September 30, 1861, 
where he attended school until he was 17 
years of age, and then went to the Collegiate 
Institute at Adams, 'New York, where he re- 
mained until his twenty-first year, and gradu- 
ated. It was his intention to become a phar- 
macist, and to that end he sought employment 
and worked for 18 months in a drug store. 
In 1883, hoAvever, he gave this up, and came 
to Sault Ste. Marie, where his father had an 
interest in a fish company, and the same year, 
borrowing $2,000 from his father, he joined 
with Joseph Ganley and went into the fish 
business on his own account. His first outfit 
consisted of a few small sailing boats and he 
employed only 12 men. ' The new firm con- 
tracted with a Chicago house and sent all their 
fish there, but the Chicago people failed to 
meet their obligations and a lawsuit was neces- 
sary to bring them to time. For some time 
the firm of Ainsworth & Ganley were forced 
to do business on their credit, but their trade 
increased and their yearly output today is 
about 1,500 tons of fish. The firm employs 
nearly 200 men, eight tugs and a small fleet 
of sailing vessels. In 1891 Mr. Ainsworth be- 
came a stockholder in the J. W. Alexander 
Lumber Company, and in 1895 was compelled 




CORYDON EVERETT AINSWORTH. 

to buy out the other stockholders to save the 
money he had invested in the enterprise. He 
still operates the mill under the name of the 
C. E. Ainsworth Lumber Company and does 
sawing for other parties, averaging about 
12,000,000 feet of lumber a season, and doing 
a prosperous and remunerative business. 
When the Edison Electric Light Company 
was organized in Sault Ste. Marie, Mr. Ains- 
worth was made a director in the company and 
later became its president. At present he is 
a stockholder and director of the Sault Sav- 
ings Bank at Sault Ste. Marie. 

Mr. Ainsworth has always had a keen eye 
for good investments. During the boom of 
1888 he purchased and platted a 40-acre sub- 
division to the city, and the investment has 
proven most profitable. He still holds a large 
block of down-town real estate, He is a direc- 
tor of the A. Booth & Co. Packing Company, 
dealers in fish, doing business with a head- 
quarters in Chicago, and their manager in this 
territory. In 1891 Mr. Ainsworth married 
Miss Florence, daughter of E. H. Mead, 
cashier of the First National Bank of Sault 
Ste. Marie. He has two children, Margax^tte 
and Frances, aged five and seven years. 



270 



MEN OF PEOGRESS. 



HON. ARCHIBALD BROWN LANG, M. D. 



LANG, M. D., HON. ARCHIBALD 
BROWN. Hon. Archibald Brown Lang, 
M. D., prominent as a citizen of Saiilt Ste. 
Marie and a skilled physician and surgeon of 
that city, was born October 28, 1848, at 
Owen Sound, Ontario. His father. Dr. Will- 
iam Lang, was a surgeon in the English navy 
and remained in that service from 1823 to 
1838, spending 10 years of his life in India, 

Dr. A. B. Lang attended school until he 
was 17, Avhen he was granted a first-class 
teachers' certificate, and shortly afterwards 
started teaching in a district school. The fol- 
lowing year he was made principal of the 
schools at Medford, Ontario. He remained 
in this capacity for four years, and left it to 
start a drug business at Owen Sound, Ontario. 
Here he commenced the study of medicine, 
a profession in which his three brothers 
and his father were all engaged. He be-, 
gan his studies in the office of his elder 
brother, and in 1880 sold out his thriving 
drug business in order to be able to give his 
entire time to his studies. He entered the 
Medical Department of Trinity College, in 
Toronto, in 1880, and went from there to the 
University of New York, from which he 
graduated in 1884. After graduating he 



established himself in practice in New York 
city, where he remained untiri878. 

That was the year when Sault Ste. Marie 
started to boom. Dr. Lang determined to 
get in on the ground floor, so he gave up his 
New York practice and coming west located 
in the young city. Here he soon became 
known and popular, and with his popularity 
his practice increased until at the present 
time he stands at the head of his profession 
in that city, where he is an honored and re- 
spected citizen. 

Dr. Lang has always been a Eepublican, 
and identified as a leading- member of that 
party. He has held many political offices, 
at his home in Owen Sound. In 1892 he 
was elected mayor of the city of Sault Ste. 
Marie. 

During his term as mayor, many improve- 
ments were made in the city of Sault Ste. 
Marie. 

Dr. Lang is a member of the State Medi- 
cal Association of Michigan, and the Amer- 
ican Medical Association, and he is a Royal 
Arch Mason. He is unmarried, and has a 
cozy home at Saulfr Ste. Marie, enjoying a 
large practice and the confidence and esteem 
of his fellow-townsmen, who look upon him 
as a progressive man, willing to aid any cause 
that will tend to benefit the city or its people. 



HISTOKIOAL SKETCHES. 



271 



FISHEK, WALTEK J. A small boy 
struggling with a large push-cart in a vain 
effort to keep it from running away from him 
on the down-grades was a sight that amused 
the citizens of Pontiac some thirty years ago. 
The small boy has pushed himself far away 
from the cart now, but he still remembers his 
struggles with that vehicle and how his arms 
and back would ache at the termination of 
his day's work. 

From a grocer's boy and the motive power 
of the delivery cart, Walter J. Fisher has be- 
come one of the wealthy and influential citi- 
zens of Pontiac, and the proprietor of one of 
the largest and busiest wholesale and retail 
grocery stores in the county. He is only 40 
years of age now, for he was born in Chicago, 
111., October 5, 1859, and yet in this short 
time he has firmly established himself among 
the business men of this state. 

His parents moved from Chicago to De- 
troit in 18 G3, and from Detroit to Pontiac in 
1864. Walter Fisher was sent to the public 
school in Pontiac until he was 12 years of 
age, and when not at school he was given odd 
jobs to keep him busy. At the age of 12 he 
was sent to work in a grocery store, presum- 
ably as clerk, but in reality he was everything 
else beside. 

In 1874 he had the good fortune to enter 
the employ of Joseph Nusbaumer, and he 
remained with him until 1881. During this 
time Ivjs employer taught him bookkeeping. 
At the age of 16 the young man was head 
clerk in the establishment, beside buying all 
the goods and managing the business. 

He returned to his old employer, Walters, 
who, in 1882, made an agreement with him 
that he would sell out in five years. At the 
expiration of that period Mr. Fisher found 
himself the proprietor of a good business and, 
by dint of hard work and strict attention, he 
has made that business one of the most suc- 
cessful in the country. In 1883 he started 
in the real estate business, purchasing some 
property on the main street of Pontiac. 
In 1893 he bought the old Walton farm, 
on Woodward avenue, just outside of the 




WALTER J. FISHER. 

city limits, and in 1895 he bought the 
Washburn farm, also on Woodward avenue. 
These properties, although not yet platted, 
are considered the most desirable real estate 
near Pontiac. Mr. Fisher owns many fine 
building lots in Pontiac, together with seven 
dwelling houses from which he derives con- 
siderable income in rentals. He is also owner 
of much desirable realty in Detroit. 

In all his real estate transactions Mr. 
Fisher has been more than ordinarily suc- 
cessful. He knows good property when he 
sees it and can figure some distance ahead 
when making a deal. He does a large real 
estate business in connection with his grocery 
trade. 

His wife, formerly Mary E. Crawford, 
daughter of Joseph B. Crawford, of Pontiac, 
has proven a valuable helpmate to him ever 
since their union in 1887. They have five 
children, namely, Walter Joseph, Mark R», 
Charles Henry, Alva Francis H. and James 
Kenneth Fisher, all of whom live at home. 

Mr. Fisher is affiliated with the Masdnie 
fraternity, being a member of Pontiac Lodge, 
T^o. 21, F. and A. M., and the Pontiac Cblfia- 
mandery, K. T. 



m2 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




JOHN WKSLEY FITZGERALD. 

FITZGERALD, HON. JOHN WES- 
LEY. Hon. John Wesley Fitzgerald, the 
present postmaster of Grand Ledge, Michigan, 
and a proininent business man of that place, 
was bom in Montpelier, Vermont, October 22, 
1850, being the child of Irish parents, his 
father coming to this country from Limerick, 
Ireland, in 1830. When Mr. Fitzgerald was 
quite young both of his parents died, and the 
boy was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. David Bar- 
ton, of Lyons, New York. He worked on a 
farm and attended the district school until he 
Avas 19 years of age, when he secured a teach- 
er's certificate and became a teacher at a sal- 
ary of $25 a month in a district school. The 
following summer he worked on a farm and 
taught the next two wdnters in district school. 
Anxious to further his education in every way 
possible, he entered the Sodus Academy, at 
Sodus, ISew York, having earned enough 
money to economically pay his way through 
the course. In company with three other 
young students he rented a room, and each one 
took his tnm as cook, so in this way they man- 
aged to keep expenses down to about $1.50 a 
week. In June, 1873, Mr. Fitzgei-ald started 



west to make his fortune, intending to locate 
in Iowa. He stopped at Jackson, Michigan, 
to visit an uncle who was a resident of that 
city, and in company with him drove down to 
Grand Ledge to visit another uncle at that 
place. It was during the harvesting season, 
and young Fitzgerald turned in and helped his 
uncle gather the crops. He was offered a 
good district school and a salary of $40 a 
month if he would consent to remain there 
that mnter, so he accepted and remained there 
until the following fall, working as a farm- 
hand during the summer and the next summer 
going out on the road as a traveling salesman 
for S. B. Green, selling agricultural imple- 
ments to farmers throughout the country. He 
then took the position of clerk in the hardware 
store of S, B. Granger, at Grand Ledge, which 
had now become his home, and as such he 
worked steadily and industriously for seven 
years, and was then taken into the firm as an 
equal pariner. At the end of ten years Mr. 
Fitzgerald severed his connection with this 
business and selling out in 1890 he organized 
the Grand Ledge Sewer Pipe Company, of 
which he is at present a director. For several 
years he sold this company's output on the 
road. He was also identified with the estab- 
lishment and locating of the chair factory at 
Grand Ledge, which is one of the most pros- 
perous institutions of that place, and gives em- 
ployment to a large number of people. 

Mr. Fitzgerald is a Kepublican. He was 
representative for the first district of Eaton 
county in the Legislature of 1895-1896 and 
clerk of the house committee on state affairs 
during the session of 1893. He was a mem- 
ber of the school board of Grand Ledge from 
1894 to 1898; township clerk from 1876 to 
1878 and appointed postmaster June 16, 
1898, and he still holds that office. 

He married Miss Carrie G., daughter of 
Tobias Foreman, at Grand Ledge, Michigan, 
in 1879^ and has three children: Pearl, Harry 
B., employed in the Grand Ledge postoffice, 
and Frank D., at school in Grand Ledge. 

Mr. Fitzgerald is a Mason, and belongs to 
Lansing Commandery, No. 25, K. T. He is 
also a Pythian and a member of the K. O. 
T. M. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



278 



CxRAHAM, ROD^^EY SHEPHERD. 
The name of Graham is a familiar one, both 
in Scottish history and romance. In the 
Gaelic the name is rendered Graeme. It was 
a Graeme whose weapon slew James I. of 
Scotland. Malcolm Graehame is made a 
character in Scott's "Lady of the Lake/' and 
Roland Graeme is the hero of the romance of 
The Abbott. A page of Scottish history in 
medieval times would be deficient if not 
marked by the name of Graham or Graeme. 
From this stock sprang Richard Graham, who 
emigrating from Scotland at an early day, 
settled in the state of N^ew York, where his 
son, Harvey Graham, father of Rodney S., 
was born and reared. Harvey Graham re- 
moved from New York to Newmarket, On- 
tario, in the early forties, where he married 
Sarah Ann Barker, a native of Ontario, and 
where Rodney S. was born August 11, 1864. 
He attended school at Queensville until 14 
years of age, when the family moved to Sault 
Ste. Marie, Michigan. Here Rodney S. en- 
tered the high school, where he finished the 
course, and then attended college at Valpa- 
raiso, Indiana. After completing his studies, 
he taught district school for several terms, in 
the meantime taking a teacher's review 
course. Returning to the Sault in 1887, he 
there married Miss Nellie McKinnon. In 
1891 he went to Washington and secured a 
position in the Indian school service, being 
stationed at the Pulallup Consolidated 
Agency as a teacher. He remained there six 
years, being promoted at the end of the first 
year to the position of superintendent. This 
school being discontinued, Mr. Graham was 
transferred to Iloopa, California, where he 
Avas made superintendent of the much larger 
school at that place. September 8, 1897, he 
was transferred to the Indian school at Mt. 
Pleasant, Michigan, where he became a 
bonded superintendent. The school then had 
but a single large building and 140 pupils. 
The number increased in one year to 300, 
and is now regarded as one of the first insti- 
tutions of its kind in the country, and is doing 
a great work. The boys are taught general 




RODNEY SHEPHERD GRAHAM. 

farming and many useful trades. The in- 
struction for girls includes housekeeping, sew- 
ing, dressmaking in its several branches, cook- 
ing, nursing and laundry work, with special 
branches for advanced pupils in both sexes. 
Pupils are taken at seven years of age and up- 
wards, remaining until eighteen. The regu- 
lar school embraces eight grades, correspond- 
ing to those usually prescribed for the public 
schools, and the pupils when graduated are 
eligible to the Carlisle and Haskell Schools 
for advanced Indian pupils. In brightness 
and aptness to learn, the young Indians com- 
pare very favorably with white pupils of the 
public schools. The Mt. Pleasant institution 
is a model of its kind, the farm consisting of 
320 acres, located on a high plateau, one and 
one-half miles from the city of Mount Pleas- 
ant, in the coimty of Isabella. 

Mr. Graham has held the position of 'mem- 
ber and chairman of the Chippewa county 
board of school examiners, but has held no 
other public office, his entire work having 
been in connection with the teaching profes- 
sion. He is a member of the Masonic frater- 
nity, of the Elks, and the Maccabees. Al- 
though his calling is wholly non-political in 
character, he is at the same time an adherent 
of the Hepublican party. 



1^4 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




CHARLES ROBERT SLIGH. 

SLIGTT, CHARLES KOBERT. Mr. Sligh 
was born at Grand Rapids, Mich., January 5, 
1850, and is of Scotch-Irish descent, his 
father, James W., being born in Scotland, and 
his mother, Eliza (Wilson) Sligh, in Ireland. 
His grandfather settled in Canada in 1833, 
and his parents came from Rochester, N. Y., to 
Michigan in 1846. His father was a captain 
in the Michigan Engineers and Mechanics' 
Regiment, was woimded in battle and died in 
1863. • > 

The boy attended the common school until 
he was fifteen years old, when he realized that 
he would have to shift for himself and help 
support the family. After a few months' 
work in the County Clerk's office, he appren- 
ticed himself to W. D. Foster, of Grand Rap- 
ids, to learn the trade of tinsmith. After com- 
pleting his apprenticeship, he worked one 
year as a journeyman, through Illinois and 
Michigan. He was sometimes hard pressed 
for food, one day subsisting on raw green corn, 
picked in the fields along the road. Twice he 
had to pawn his valise and watch, for a night's 
lodging. At Galesburg, 111., he secured em- 
ployment with the C, B. & Q. R. R., where 
he worked four months. Then he returned 



to Grand Rapids and again, entered the employ 
of W. D. Foster, as clerk. He engaged with 
the Berkey & Gay Furniture Co., and from 
1874 to 1880 was a traveling salesman for that 
firm, being the first man to introduce Grand 
Rapids furniture in Texas, making his trips 
by stage or on horseback. 

In 1880 Mr. Sligh organized the Sligh 
Furniture Company, with a capital of $18,- 
500, of which he furnished $4,000. Only 
40 men were employed, but the firm has pros- 
pered until it now employs 325 men and the 
goods sell in every state in the Union. 

Mr. Sligh was married in 1875, to Mary S., 
daughter of David Conger, of Prairie du Sac, 
Wis., and three daughters, Edith, Adeline and 
Loraine, are the result of this union. 

Mr. Sligh is a director in the Citizens' Tele- 
phone Company, which was organized largely 
through his efforts and which is one of the 
largest independent companies in the country. 
He served one term on the Board of Education 
and was president of the National Furniture 
Manufacturers' Association 1888-92, and for 
several years was president of the Grand Rap- 
ids Furniture M anuf acturers' Association, and 
is at present one of its directors. He was one 
of the organizers of the Grand Rapids Board 
of Trade, was its vice-president for one year 
and a director for ten years. 

He was recently appointed by Gov. Pingree 
a member of the ^ ^Michigan Board of Man- 
agers at the Ohio Centennial." 

Mr. Sligh was for several years engaged in 
importing mahogany from Central America, 
making five trips to that country. He was 
especially instrumental in 1890 in breaking 
up the mirror glass trust, making a trip to 
Germany for that purpose. He also made a 
trip to Europe in 1894, introducing Grand 
Rapids furniture. 

Mr. Sligh was a Republican, but separated 
from the party on the financial question. In 
1896 he was nominated for Governor by the 
Bay City fusion convention and polled the 
largest vote ever given a Democrat in Michi- 
gan for that office. He is a man of sterling 
qualities and a most influential citizen. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



276 



HAET, KODNEY GEOEGE. Rodney 
George Hart was the first white child bom in 
Lapeer County, Michigan. The date of this 
event was May 28, 1834, when that section 
of this now thickly populated state was almost 
a wilderness. 

His father, Alvin N". Hart, was the pioneer 
settler in Lapeer County, cutting his way 
through the woods from a point near Oxford, 
Michigan, guided only by the signs known to 
the woodmen of that time, and camping 
wherever nightfall found him. One night he 
camped under a huge elm tree. This tree is 
still standing today on the commons in the City 
of Lapeer. Alvin N. Hart was the first sen- 
ator from that section, and also county judge 

Until he was about twelve years old Rod- 
ney G. Hart attended the district school near 
his home, and then he was sent to the school 
in Romeo, Michigan. At sixteen he visited 
relatives in Cleveland, Ohio, and attended 
school in that city, when he returned to Michi- 
gan to enter the University of Michigan. His 
studies were interrupted by ill-health and at 
nineteen years of age he was forced to leave 
school altogether. 

Mr. Hart was present at the first session 
of the Legislature in Lansing, in the capacity 
of page, being one of the three pages that 
were appointed in 1848. He was then four- 
teen years old. 

In the year of 1866 he established a pri- 
vate bank and successfully conducted the 
banking business until 1878 when he sold out 
his interests and went abroad to spend a year 
in Europe. AVhile abroad he visited the Paris 
Exposition with the General Grant party. 

Mr. Hart was the first mayor of the city of 
Lapeer. For six years he held the position of 
postmaster there, and was a member of the 
Board of Aldermen for several terms. Whik^ 
serving on the Board of Water Commission- 
ers, together with Judge Joseph B. Moore, 
now on the Supreme Bench, he was instru- 
mental in giving Lapeer the water system now 
in use. 

Since his return from Europe, Mr. Hart, 
beside devoting his attention to his many 




RODNEY GEORGE HART. 

other interests, has been occupied in the 
breeding of Percheron and standard bred 
horses, Devon and Galloway cattle. Merino 
sheep and Victoria hogs. His Devon and 
Galloway stock are famous and Merino sheep 
from his farm have been sold all over the 
world where sheep are raised. 

Mr. Hart has interested himself in the pro- 
motion of many enterprises in this state, prin- 
cipally the New State Telephone Company, 
of which he is one of the largest stockholders. 
He is manager of the local institution, and a 
director in the original Detroit company. He 
owns and operates many large farms, the 
largest of which adjoins the city of Lapeer. 

In the Masonic fraternity, Mr. Hart has 
made his way as far as the Mystic Shrine, is 
a member of Moslem Temple in Detroit, and 
of the Genesee Valley Commandery No. 16 
in Flint. He married Mary C. Hazen at La* 
peer, December 5, 1854, and has three daugh- 
ters, all^ of whom are married. Kate being 
the wife of Frederick Lincoln, of Lapeisr; 
Belle, that of M. H. McCarthy, of Ohieagc^, 
and Mary, wife of E. J. Southwioh^ also^oi 
Chicago. 



118 



MEK OF PKOGKESS. 




COL. JOHN PAUL I ETERMANN. 

PETERMANN, COL. JOHN PAUL. 
CoL John Paul Petermann, of Allouez, Mich- 
igan, won his spurs in the Spanish- American 
war, fighting under General Shaf ter and Gen- 
eral Duffield in the battles around Santiago de 
Cuha, and being present at the siege and cap- 
ture of that place. He has shown himself an 
. excellent officer, and his services have been 
officially recognized by the government. 

He is of German descent. * His father, Eer- 
dinand D. Petermann, came to this country 
from Stuttgart, Germany, at the age of 14. 
Mr. Petermann's grandfather, Daniel Peter- 
mann, was a soldier in the Prussian army, and 
later, when Tf apoleon conquered the province, 
served under the great French emperor. 

John Paul Petermann was born at Ridge 
Mine, Ontonagon coimty, Michigan, July 24, 
1863, and five years after his birth, in 1868, 
the family moved to Calumet, where the 
youngster attended the public school until he 
reached hi-^ fifteenth year. His parents de- 
sired that their boy should study for the min- 
istry, but he had mechanical ideas, and wanted 
to learn to be a machinist, and eventually 



young Petermann carried the day. At the age 
of 15 years he entered the machine shops of 
the Calumet & Hecla mine, where he worked 
for three years mastering the trade he had de- 
termined upon following. He then took the 
position of fireman on one of the engines; 
owned by the Calumet & Hecla Company and 
engaged in hauling rock, and learning how to 
run the engine. The two following years 
were occupied as a time-keeper at the machine 
shop, and he then accepted the position of en- 
gineer and put in three years hauling the 
rock. 

After this Mr. Petermann then associated 
himself with Ernst BoUman, getting out tim- 
ber for the mines, and he is still engaged mth 
Mr. Bollman in this enterprise. 

His general store in Allouez was started in 
1894, when Mr. Petermann took all his sav- 
ings from the bank, a matter of $8,000, and 
went into this business. His father, prior to 
the boy coming of age, had been the custodian 
of all his savings, and when young Petermann 
became 21 years of age, he informed him 
that it was time he looked after his own 
money. eTohn Paul sent the money 
OA^er to a br.nker and instructed him to buy 
one share of Calumet & Hecla every time he 
had enough money on hand. He bought 
12 shares of this stock at the average price of 
$250 a share, and he held them until the 
spring of 1899, when he sold them for $870 
a share. 

Mr. Petermann joined as a private the 
Calumet Light Guard in 1881 and served suc- 
cessively as corporal, sergeant, second lieuten- 
ant, first lieutenant, captain, major and was 
made colonel of the Eifth Regiment, January 
15, 1897. He served as colonel of the Thirty- 
fourth Michigan Volunteers during the Span- 
ish-American war, and upon the reorganiza- 
tion of the Michigan State troops, was made 
colonel of the Third Regiment in July, and 
resigned August 15, 1899. Col. Petermann 
married Miss Ida E. L. Groth, the adopted 
daughter of Ernest Bollman at Calumet, in 
1890. They have five children at home. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



277 



SHELDEN, HON. CARLOS DOUG- 
LASS. When Carlos Douglass Shelden was 
making $10 a day for five days on a contract 
he took when he was 14 years of age to move 
a steam boiler from Portage Lake to the 
Huron mine, he thought his fortune was 
made, and that never again in his career 
would he ever get so much money in such a 
short space of time. He has almost forgotten 
that episode now in the busy life he has been 
leading since that period, and to-day this 
prominent capitalist and business man of 
Houghton, Michigan, is largely interested in 
copper, iron and timber lands in the Upper 
Peninsula. 

Carlos D. Shelden was born in Walworth, 
AValworth county, Wisconsin, June 10, 1840. 
His father was Ransom Shelden, one of the 
pioneers of the copper district of Michigan, and 
liis grandfather was George Shelden, of Essex, 
New York. Mr. Shelden's mother, Theresa 
M. Douglass, was a descendant of the Doug- 
lass family of Massachusetts, mentioned fre- 
quently in the historical records of the New 
England colonies, and of revolutionary fame. 
The elder Shelden brought his family to 
Michigan in 1847, when the boy was but 
seven years of age, and located in Houghton. 
Here young Shelden was sent to the district 
school. From 1858 to 1861 the boy attended 
the public schools of Ypsilanti, and when the 
civil war broke out he raised a company, which 
was mustered in as Company I, Twenty-third 
Michigan Infantry. He was elected captain, 
and as such he served with his regiment 
through the war, participating in many en- 
gagements. He was mustered out in 1865. 

Returning to Houghton, he engaged in the 
drug business, in which he remained for six 
years. He was then made manager of the 
Portage Lake Foundry, and he held that posi- 
tion for eighteen years, leaving it to become 
the superintendent of the Shelden & Shafer 
Iron Company, at Crystal Falls. 

After four years in this latter position, Mr. 
Shelden returned to Houghton, having pre- 




HON. CARLOS DOUGLASS SHELDEN. 

viously been appointed executor of the estate 
of his fatlier. Ransom Shelden, which com- 
prised thousands of acres of the most valuable 
iron, cop[)er and timber lands in the Upper 
Peninsula. 

In 1865 Mr. Shelden married Miss A. Mary 
Skiif, daughter of George and Eliza Skiff, of 
Willoughby, Ohio. She died in 1868, when 
their son. Ransom Skiff Shelden, now a prac- 
ticing attoniey at Houghton, Michigan, was 
only six months old. In 1888 Mr. Shelden 
married Mrs. Sallie W. Gardner^ of Washing- 
ton, D. C, a daughter of John Dashiell, an 
attorney of Princess Anne, Maryland. 

Mr. Shelden, in 1892, was elected a mem- 
ber of the Michigan Legislature. He was sen- 
ator from the Thirty-second District in 1894^ 
and elected to Congress from the Twelfth Dis- 
trict of Michigan in 1896. He was re-elected 
to Congress in 1898. He is a Mason of the 
Thirty-second degree, and belongs to Montrose 
Commandery, K. T., of Calumet; the Shrine 
of Ahmed Temple, Marquette, and the Gttmd 
Rapids Consistory. 



278 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




CLEMENT M. SMITH. 

SMITH, CLEMEXT M. Judge Smith 
first came to the Circuit Bench in January, 
1893, when he was appointed to a short term 
vacancy. He was elected for the full term at 
then ensuing April election, and at the election 
of 1899 was re-elected for a further term of six 
years. He was born near Fort Wayne, Ind., 
December 4, 1844, his father, David W. 
Smith, having been of English descent, and bis 
mother, Leonora McDonald, of Scotch descent. 
The parents settled near Nashville, Barry 
county, on the farm on which they still live, 
in 1843. The son's early years were divided 
between farm work and the country school. 
When sixteen years of age he entered the Ver- 
mont ville Academy, where he passed a year 
with the view of qualifying himself for teach- 
ing. The three or four following years were 
passed at teaching and farm work. An inci- 
dent that brought him in connection with a 
suit at law, as a witness, awakened in him an 
interest in legal proceedings and determined 
him to make the law his profession. In 1865 
he entered the law department of the Univer- 
sity and was admitted to the bar in 1868. He 
accepted the principalship of the first Union 
school opened at Nashville, 1868-9, and after 



a few months spent in Minnesota he formed a 
law partnership with Harvey Wright at Mid- 
dleville, which Avas closed out after about six 
months, when he returned to Nashville and 
entered upon a successful practice. In 1876 
he was elected Judge of Probate of Barry 
county. In the fall of 1880 he formed a co- 
partnership with Hon. Philip T. Colgrove, 
which continued until Judge Smith was ap- 
pointed to the Circuit Bench, necessitating his 
withdrawal from active practice. In 1890 
Judge Smith was appointed Prosecuting At- 
torney of Barry county, to fill a vacancy. His 
re-election to the judgeship in 1899 sufficiently 
attests the estimation in which he is held as a 
judge and citizen. A prominent member of 
Eaton county bar (Eaton county being in- 
cluded in Judge Smith's circuit) during the 
earlier days of his judgeship, thus wrote of 
him: "Judge Smith has much ability as a 
jurist and is distinguishing himself for his 
readiness in grasping and mastering principles. 
He is extremely courteous and kind to mem- 
bers of the bar. His great strength is seen in 
his quick decisions, when once satisfied of the 
right. Many a harsh rule of law is set aside 
in behalf of justice and conscience, in his 
chancery court. He is apparently the most 
interested person in the cases tried before him. 
He has already taken front rank as a jurist in 
the state. Being yet a comparatively young 
man, his future must be as bright as his course 
on the bench is upright and just.'^^ 

Judge Smith is vice-president of the Hast- 
ings Wool Boot Company and a director in the 
Hastings National bank and the Hastings 
Table Company. He is a member of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity, including the Knights Tem- 
plar, and of the Knights of Pythias. He is? 
also a member of the Circuit Judges' Associa- 
tion of Michigan. Miss Frances M. Wheeler, 
daughter of Milo T. Wheeler of Hastings, 
became Mrs. Smith in 1871. Their children 
are Shirley, a graduate of the literary depart- 
ment of the University, Class of '97, now an 
instructor and taking a post-graduate course 
there, Gertrude J., in the literary department 
of the University, and Donald D., in the law 
and literary departments 

*Bench and Bar of MichigaA, p. 288. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



279 



HAWKTlS^S, VICTOR. Among the 
promising young attorneys of Southern Mich- 
igan and one whose aim seems to be to honor 
his native place, and who will deserve honors 
at her hands, is Victor Hawkins of Jonesville. 
He was born at that place June 7th, 1867, his 
father, William B. Hawkins, having been one 
of the pioneers of Hillsdale county, and for 
forty years one of the best known practicing 
physicians in that part of the state. His pa- 
ternal grandfatlier was from Cornwall, Eng- 
land, and was of the class known as the landed 
gentry. His mother, Ellen Robinson, was a 
Pennsylvania lady. The son at the age of 
sixteen, with such education as the Jonesville 
schools (including the primary and high 
schools) afforded, decided to strike out for him- 
self and went to Jeddo, Pa., and entered the 
service of the (1. B. Marble Coal Company, 
starting in at $25.00 per month and in a short 
time was made assistant bookkeeper. While 
thus employed he was tendered a position as 
bookkeeper in the Grosvenor Savings bank of 
Jonesville. This offer, affording him as it did 
an opportunity of resuming his residence in 
his old home, Avas readily accepted. His bent, 
however, seemed to be toward the law rather 
than finance, and-in the fall of 1886 he entered 
the law department of the University, gradu- 
ating therefrom with the class of 1889, and 
was admitted to practice before Judge E. D. 
Kinne at Ann Arbor. He at once opened 
office at J onesville, first with a partner, under 
the firm name of Weaver & Hawkins, but after 
six months the firm was dissolved and he has 
since been in practice alone, having had a suc- 
cessful and profitable practice from the start. 
Mr. Hawkins is a Republican in politics and 
his enviable standing at the bar and in the com- 
munity his led him to be looked upon as 
eligible timber for political preferment, and 




VICTOR HAWKINS. 

he has been tendered nominations on several 
occasions, but has uniformly declined, deem- 
ing it part of wisdom for a young man to at- 
tend to business rather than politics. He has, 
however, been village attorney for Jonesville 
for the past ten years, an oflSce that comes by 
appointment rather than by popular election. 
He has business interests in the village, being 
a stockholder in the Omega Portland Cement 
Company of Jonesville, attorney for the Gros- 
venor bank and a director in the Jonesvilli, 
Electric Light & Power Company. He is a 
society man, his connections being Masonic, 
Knights of Pythias, Maccabees and Elks. He 
is Past Master of Lafayette Lodge, No. 16, F. 
& A. M., of Jonesville, and P^t Chancellor of 
Pythagorns Lodge, K. of P., which he organ- 
ized. 

Miss Jennie Eckler, daughter of Louis Eck- 
ler of Jackson, became Mrs. Hawkins in 1897, 
the fruit of the marriage being two childfe% 
Ellen and Edwin Richard Hawkins. 



280 



MEN OF PEOGRESS. 




JAMES ALBERT COYE. 

CO YE, JAM RS ALEKR1\ James Albert 
Coye, Surveyor of Customs at (xrand Kapids, 
is a descendant of a sturdy Scotch family, 
^vhich originally came to this country in 1752, 
settling in Connecticut. At that time the 
name was written McCoy. Members of the 
family served with distinction in the war of 
the Revolntion and in that of 1812. 

Fighting his own battles since he was nine 
years of age, he has risen steadily with the 
growing position of Western Michigan and is 
today one of the aggressive forces of the second 
city of the state. He is a Republican of the 
old stock, and his term of party service is a| 
long and honorable one, earning for him the 
reputation of being one of the war horses of 
party in Western Michigan. In 1897 he was 
appointed by President McKinley to the sur- 
vey orship of customs and he has so adminis- 
tered the trust that the port of Grand Rapids, 
in the valiie of its importations, has taken a 
leading rank. He has put his personal energy 
into the work, with the result that the govern- 
ment receives more net revenue from Grand 
Rapids than from any other port in the coun- 



try in proportion to the business transacted. 
His father, Albert Coye, was a manufacturer 
of awnings and tents at Grand Rapids in 1854, 
and it was there that James Albert Coye was 
born, October 9, 1855. His mother, Mary 
Pew, was of English descent, and was a woman 
of strong character, training her son in prin- 
ciples of sterling integrity which have been 
his guiding star. The boy's early education 
was not extensive, being confined mainly in 
early life to four years of instruction in the 
public schools of Grand Rapids. His first ex- 
perience was work in the upholstering depart- 
ment of Comstock, Nelson & Co., and his 
wages amounted to 25 cents a day. In the fall 
of 1864 he was apprenticed to and learned the 
wood carver's trade, serving from 1865 to 
1875 as an employe of the great furniture 
manufacturing company of J^elson, Matter & 
Co. In 1875 he moved to Goshen, Ind., and 
took charge of the carving department of the 
Hawks Furniture Co., a newly organized con- 
cern, and made their first designs in tables and 
chamber sets. He was there until 1880, when 
he returned to Grand Rapids and to the ser- 
vice of his former employers, where he re- 
mained for nearly ten years. Meantime, at 
the suggestion of friends, he had begun the 
study of the law, reading at intervals from the 
time he was 15 years old until in 1890 he spent 
a year in the law offices of Morris Houseman. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1891, before 
Judge Grove of the Kent County Circuit 
Court, practicing law until he was appointed 
to the position which he now holds. He has 
held no other public office, though he was 
twice a candidate for the Michigan House of 
Representatives at a time when Repu' lican 
majorities were hard to find in Grand Rapids. 
He has been chairman of the Republican city 
committee of Grand Rapids, was for seven 
years a director of the Valley City Building & 
Loan Association, and in 1887 was president 
of the Grand Rapids Retail Grocers' Associa- 
tion. 

In 1875 he married Miss Belle Judd, of 
Ligonier, Ind. They have no children. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



281 



LEE, FRED ELMER. Mr. Lee is general 
manager of the P. I). Beckwith estate and of 
the Round Oak Stove Works (now become ex- 
tensive) established by P. D. Beckwith in 
1869. He was born in Dowagiac in 1858 and 
after passing the public schools, he finished 
his education at Buchtel College, at Akron, 
Ohio. In 1876 he began his business career as 
bookkeeper for the banking firm of C. T. Lee 
& Son at Dowagiac. Two years later he went 
to Quincy, Mich., to take charge of his father's 
affairs there. Returning to Dowagiac at the 
end of a year (1879) he entered the employ of 
Mr. Beckwith. After three years employed in 
the works and office he went on the road as 
salesman for five years, when the magnitude 
of the business had become such that he was 
called in to take charge of the sales depart- 
ment, and for several years previous to Mr. 
Beckwith's death in 1889, he was in charge of 
all the office work. On Mr. Beckwith's death, 
Mr. Lee's familiarity with the business, to- 
gether with his known probity, pointed him 
out as the one eminently fitted for the respon- 
sible trust of general manager of the estate, of 
which he was appointed one of the executors. 

A daughter of Mr. Beckwith, Miss Kate 
Beckwith, became Mrs. Lee in 1878 and 
Mr. and Mrs. Lee joined with the other heirs 
in erecting the handsome opera house to the 
memory of Mr. Beckwith, in Dowagiac, who 
had done so much for the growth and prosper- 
ity of the town, and had equally endeared him- 
self to his family and friends. Mr. Lee is one 
of the solid men of Western Michigan. He 
has banking interests at Dowagiac and Benton 
Harbor and manufacturing interests at 
Buchanan, is president of the Buchanan & St. 
Joseph River railroad company and has ex- 
tensive real estate interests at home and in the 
west. 

He was mayor of Dowagiac in 1890 and a 
delegate to the Republican National Conven- 
tion at Minneapolis in 1892. His father and 
mother,' Chauncey T., and Sarah H. (Lock- 
wood) Lee, are both living in Dowagiac. Mrs. 
Fred E. Lee is a graduate of Mrs. Towle's 
Female Seminary at Detroit. She has always 




FRED ELMSR LEE. 

given much of her time and means to benevo- 
lent purposes, and established and maintained 
at her own expense the first kindergarten in 
Dowagiac. She is a great reader and an ex- 
tensive traveler, both in this ., country and 
abroad. She is fond of club work and is a 
member of the Board of Control of the Chil- 
dren's Home at St. Joseph. Both Mr. and 
Mrs. Lee's ancestry date back to the Puritans 
of the Mayflower. They have one child. 

The Beckwith works, first established for 
the manufacture of Round Oak Stoves, em- 
ployed in the beginning eight hands. Today 
the estate employs 600 men and the plant re- 
quires for its buildings and operating space 
over fifteen acres of ground, and the furnaces 
have a daily melting capacity of sixty tons of 
pig iron. The stoves ^re adapted both to hard 
and soft coal and wood, and the demand for 
the output is co-extensive with the continent. 
The concern manufactures cooking ranges and 
furnaces (of the latter of which they manufac- 
ture ten different sizes) which have, equally 
with the heaters, points that commeifd them 
to the trade and to the public^ The manage- 
ment are proud of the fact that they have 
never had any misunderstanding with their 
employes, and that the business has increased 
five fold within the last seven years* 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 




MARTIN G. LOENNECJCER. 

LOENNECKEK, MARTIN G. Mr. 
Loennecker is one of the public spirited citi- 
zens of Jackson. Born in Germany in 1845, 
his education, up to the age of fourteen years, 
was received in the Normal School of Olden- 
burg,, but improving his evenings by the study 
of languages. At the age of fourteen he went 
to work as assistant bookkeeper in a commis- 
sion house, without salary, remaining there 
three years. He had so pursued his linguistic 
studies that at the age of seventeen, in addition 
to his native German, he could speak and write 
English, French, Spanish and Dutch (Hol- 
land). Seeing no opening in Germany he de- 
cided to come to America. With twenty dol- 
lars given him by his father, and a passage 
ticket, he came to New York. After a five 
days' quest, he secured a position a^ assistant 
bookkeeper in a wholesale liquor house, in 
which position he remained one year. He 
afterwards learned the trade of a cigarmaker. 
After some three years spent in New York 
City, he diversified his occupation by working 
as a salesman for a New York book concern in 
western New York for about three years, when 
he decided to remove to Chicago. He opened 
ft book store in that city and did a good business 



until 1871, when he was burned out. The 
great Chicago fire of 1871 so crippled the in- 
surance companies that out of insurance of 
$7,000 which Mr. Loennecker carried on his 
stock, he received less than $300. He came to 
Jackson in 1872 and first went to work at his 
trade of a cigar maker and soon became a 
manufacturer. 

In 1886 and 1887 he was elected alderman 
and in 1888 was elected mayor on the Demo- 
cratic ticket and re-elected in 1889 by a large 
majority. 

Mr. Loennecker was led in his political 
action to afiiliate with the People's party, as 
the best representative of that social and indus- 
trial equality that has been the dream of many 
of the best thinkers and philosophers the world 
over. In. 1889 he started the Industrial News 
at Jackson, which he sold out in 1899, though 
still retaining his connection with it as an edi- 
torial writer. He helped to organize tlie Peo- 
ple's party in the state in 1889 and '90 and 
has taken an active part during the several 
campaigns. He was nominated on the com- 
bination ticket at the Bay City convention in 
1896 for Commissioner of the State Land 
Ofiice, and supported Wm. J. Bryan (of whom 
he is a great admirer as well as of the Chicago 
platform) for the presidency. In 1897 he 
was again nominated and elected mayor of the 
city of Jackson, and was re-elected in 1898 
and again in 1899 for a fifth term. On his 
first election he at once began an investigation 
of the city finances and city officials, and 
secured the return to the city of considerable 
sums of money wrongfully withheld by two 
different officials. During his term the local 
taxes w6re reduced and a bonded indebtedness 
of $53,000 paid off. The Jackson City Hos- 
pital owes its existence largely, if not wholly, 
to his efforts. He started a popular subscrip- 
tion in 1888 by which the hospital was founded 
and donated to the city. He still continues his 
business as a cigar manufacturer and is presi- 
dent of the Michigan Mutual Plate Glass In- 
surance Company and is a member of the Ger- 
man Arbeiter Society of Michigan. Mrs. 
Loennecker, to whom he was married at Buf- 
falo, N. Y., in 1866, was formerly Miss Mary 
Borchard. Their children are Louisa, widow 
of Frederick Price of Jackson, Anna, wife of 
G. Mumford, an attorney, Chicago; Gustav 
A., business manager with his father; Blanche 
A., at home; Julius E., with Metropolitan Life 
Insurance Company. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



283 



WARNER, FRED M. Born in Hickling, 
ISTottinghamshire, England, July 21st, 1865, 
at the age of three months he was brought to 
this country by his parents, and a few months 
later his mother died. After the death of his 
mother he was adopted by Hon. P. Dean War- 
ner, the oldest resident of Farmington village 
and one of the earliest settlers in that vicinity. 
Fred graduated from the Farmington High 
School at the age of fourteen, and afterwards 
attended the State Agricultural College for 
one term. He then became a clerk in his 
father's large general store, and when he 
reached the age of twenty-one, the mercantile 
business was turned over to him. Three years 
later he purchased the hardware business in an 
adjoining store, uniting the whole under one 
roof, and making it the most extensive mer- 
cantile business in Oakland county. 

Realizing the fitness of the land in that part 
of Oakland county for grazing purposes, Mr. 
Warner in 1889 established a large cheese fac- 
tory at Farmington. The success of this fac- 
tory led to the establishment by him later on of 
like factories at Franklin and Novi. In 1899 
the output of the three factories was ten 
thousand boxes, or 450,000 pounds, of cheese, 
nearly all of which was sold to the Michigan 
trade. Hd has recently purchased a fourth 
factory. In addition to his other lines of busi- 
ness Mr. Warner operates a cold storage plant, 
in connection with which immense quantities 
of eggs and butter are handled every year. 
He is also senior partner in the brick manu- 
facturing firm of Warner & Whipple. 
Largely through Mr. Warner's efforts a bank 
was established at Farmington in 1898, he be- 
ing a stockholder and one of the directors. 

When twenty-three years of age Mr. War- 
ner was elected a member of the village coun- 
cil, and has served on the council nine years. 
He has been five times elected president of 
the village, four times without opposition, and 
the one time when there was opposition, he was 
chosen by an overwhelming majority. In 
1894 he was elected to the State Senate from 
the twelfth district, comprising the counties 
of Oakland and Macomb, and was returned in 




FRED M. WARNER. 

1896, both times leading the entire ticket in 
both counties in votes received. He was the 
youngest member of the Senate in the sessions 
of both ^95 and '97. His career in the Senate 
was marked by the same energy, ability and 
fidelity that he has shown in every official 
position which he has held. He made a deter- 
mined fight against the plank road companies 
which had for years exacted tolls from the 
people without keeping their roads in proper 
condition, and he secured the passage of a law 
which brought the companies to time. 

The name of Warner is one that is much 
respected at Farmington and the adjacent 
country. P. Dean Warner saw Farmington 
in 1824, and although now in his eightieth 
year is still active in business affairs, being 
president of the Farmington bank. He was a 
representative in the Legislature in 1865 and 
1867, and was Speaker during the latter ses- 
sion. He was a member of the Senate in 1869. 
Both father and son have done a great deal 
toward the advancement of the town and vicin- 
ity in which they live. 

Mr. Warner is a member of the higher 
Masonic orders and of the auxiliary Eastern 
Star, of the Knights of Pythias, Knights of 
the Loyal Guard, and of the Macoabees^ In 
1888 he married Martha M. Davis, daughter 
of Samuel Davis, of Farmington. They have 
four childi'en, the oldest ten years and thQ 
youngest, one year of age. 



184 



MEN- OF PROGKESS. 




CYRUS GRAY LUCE. 

LTJCE, CYRUS GRAY. There is a wide 
diflference between an office seeker and an office 
holder. Asa rule the office seeker does not get 
there, while the office holder gets there be- 
cause he is wanted. This distinction will at 
least hold good in the case of a man who for 
half a century has been continuously (with 
some possible interims) in the service of the 
public in various positions. More than fifty. 
years ago (1848) Gov. Luce was a Whig can- 
didate for the Indiana Legislature. Whigs in 
office in those days were rather a scarce com- 
modity, and although Mr. Luce was defeated, 
it was by only a, few votes in a strong Demo- 
cratic district. This may be termed the com- 
mencement of a life covering more than fifty 
years. 

Gov. Luce combined New England with 
Virginian blood, his father, Walter Luce, be- 
ing from Connecticut and his mother, Mary 
M. Gray, from Virginia. The parents were 
married in Ohio, Cyrus G. having been born 
at Windsor, that state, July 2nd, 1824. The 
family removed to Indiana in 1836 and Cyrus 
G. settled in Gilead, Branch county, in 1849. 
Three years later he was elected supervisor of 
his township and has served in that, capacity 



at different times for eleven years. In 1854 
(the first year of the Republican ascendancy), 
he was elected to the Legislature. He was 
treasurer of liranch county two terms, 1858- 
'62, and State Senator two terms, sessions of 
1865 and '67. He was elected Governor in 
18S6 and again in 1888. In all his public 
trusts, economj^, honesty, force and courage to 
do right, have been the governing factors. As 
governor he did not hesitate to use the veto 
power where his judgment so inclined him. 
AVhether wise or unwise in itself, his veto of 
an appropriation in behalf of the State Univer- 
sity during his first term illustrates the sturdy 
courage of the man. Few men hoping for re- 
election would have hazarded the enmity of 
an institution so strong in itself, and with thou- 
sand holding cherished relations to it, in every 
part of the state. But he did what he thought 
was right regardless of what might come after. 
As State Oil Inspector, 1879-83, he so system- 
atized and economized the work that a finan- 
cial balance of over $32,000 was saved to the 
state. Mr. Luce served for a number of years 
on the State Board of Agriculture and as Mas- 
ter of the State Grange and as President of the 
State Pioneer and Historical Society, and is 
now President of the State Library Commis- 
sion. With an education running from the pri- 
mary to the academic, he has been equal to 
every place to which he has been called. With- 
out pretentions to oratory, he is, in debate or on 
the stump, as Mark Anthony was, a plain, 
blunt man who speaks right on, and to the pur- 
pose. With a capital of only $200 supplied 
him by his father, he has made a home and a 
farm of which he is justly proud and a name of 
which his fellow citizens are equally proud. 
While his hand and his heart are with the 
farming interests, not his own merely, but 
those of the state at large, he has other busi- 
ness and financial interests. Mr. Luce was 
first married in 1849 to Miss Julia A. Dick- 
inson of Gilead, by whom he had four chil- 
dren, two sons and two daughters. Left a 
widower, August 13th, 1882, he was again 
married November 12th, 1883, to Mrs. Mary 
E. Thompson of Bronson. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



285 



LO^^G, M. D., OSCAR RUSSELL. Dr. 

Oscar Russell Long, medical superintendent 
of the State Asylum, Ionia, Michigan, and a 
resident of that city, is a native of Williams- 
port, Pennsylvania, in which city he was born, 
August 1(^, 1850. His father was Francis 
F. Long, a lumber manufacturer of that place. 
AV hen Oscar l^ong was nine months of age his 
mother died and her adopted father, Col. 
Joseph S. Titus, took charge of the three chil- 
dren that were left alone. He lived just out- 
side of the city of Williamsport and young 
Long was sent to the district school and later 
to Dickinson Seminary. When the boy was 
seventeen years old he quit school and entered 
his father's sash and blind factory, working at 
first as a mill hand earning $1.25 per diem, and 
being sent from one department to the other 
in order to learn the work thoroughly. The 
next year he entered the sash department and 
later was placed in charge of it. While thertj 
he was tendered and accepted a position as 
general manager of a new plant of the same 
kind which had been erected at West Creek, 
near Emporium, Pa., by the Alleii W. Swift 
Company. It was a step upward and for the 
next eighteen months Mr. Long was superin- 
tendent of a hustling small plant employing 
40 to 50 men. He was not satisfied and de- 
cided to take up some other profession, so he 
gave his employer notice that he intended to 
quit at a certain date, and despite flattering 
ofl^ers of better pay, left the works and after 
a consultation with his older brother decided 
to adopt the medical profession, as one that 
presented the best opportunities to a hustling 
young man. 

Entering the office of Drs. Doane and Rein- 
hold, March, 1870, he read medicine during 
the spring and summer and taught school in 
the winter of 1870 and 1871, entered the Uni- 
versity of Michigan in the fall of 1871, he at- 
tended the full course of lectures of the college 
year of 1871 and 1872. In October of the 
latter y^ar he came to Detroit, Michigan, and 
entered the Detroit Homeopathic Medical Col- 
lege, from which he graduated in. June, 1873. 
He then started to seek his fortune in the west- 




OSCAR RUSSELL LONG, M. D. 

em country, locating at Burlington, Iowa, 
where he practiced successfully and saved up 
$300, which he deposited in a bank that was 
among the first to fail in 1873. He was ten- 
dered and accepted the position of professor 
and demonstrator of anatomy at the Detroit 
Homeopathic College and returned to Michi- 
gan, remaining in that capacity for two years. 

In the spring of 1874 he located at Ionia, 
Michigan, and practiced his profession there 
for eleven years. When the state of Michigan 
had completed an asylum for the dangerous 
and criminal insane (now State Asylum), Dr. 
Long was appointed medical superintendent 
and opened the institution in September, 1885. 
The new buildings were erected in 1890 and 
1896, and there are 260 inmates today. 

Dr. Long married Miss Annie M. Freeman 
at Detroit, Michigan, in 1874. He has one 
child, Grace S., wife of Albert B. Bedford, 
capitalist and jeweler of Ionia, Mich. Dr. 
Long is vice-president of the State Savings 
bank of Ionia; a member of the American 
Psychological Association, the American In- 
stitute of Homeopathy; ex-prjesident of the 
Michigan Homeopathic State Medical Society, 
and a member of the F. & A. M. 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




CHARLES E. BKLKNAP. 

BELKNAP, OHAELES E. "From dnim- 
mer boy to Congress" seems to be an appropri- 
ate introduction to a sketch of this well known 
citizen of the Valley City. Closing his school 
life at twelve years of age and entering upon 
shop work, he acquired a knowledge of handi- 
craft and business at the receptive period of 
life during the ensuing three or four years, 
that later on beaconed him forward to a suc- 
cessful career as a manufacturer. His father 
was engaged in wagon making* and blacksmith - 
ing at Grand Rapids, and it was here tl at Mr. 
Belknap's apprenticeship was served. In 1862, 
then less than sixteen years of age, carried 
along by the patriotic impulse, he enlisted as 
a drummer boy in the Twenty-first Michigan 
infantry and served until the close of the 
Cidl War, although the drummer , boy's sash 
was soon exchanged for the sword and musket. 
He entered the ranks and participated in the 
battles of Perry sville. Stone Eiv^r, Chicka- 
mauga, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, Savan- 
nah, Benton ville and in many minor battles 
and skirmishes. He was wounded five times, 
and was captain of his company at the c^ose of 
the war, and had been breveted Major atid 
Lieutenant-Colonel. Returning to Grand 



Rapids, he worked for a year at his old trade 
and then for five years conducted his father's 
farm near Grand Rapids. In 1872 he opened 
a small wagmi shop and the first year turned 
out about fifteen wagons. The business grew 
steadily and in 1884, the Belknap Wagon Co. 
was organized and incorporated and is toda}^ 
the second largest manufactory of sleighs in 
the United States. Their output last year was 
1,200 wagons and 1,800 sleighs, giving em- 
ployment to about sixty men the year round. 

Mr. Eelknap has done service to the state in 
civil life as well as in the military and indus- 
trial lines. He served seven years as member 
of the Grand Rapids School Board and was 
its acting president for two years, 1882-e3, and 
a like time as mayor, 1884-5. He was a mem- 
ber of the board of control of the School for 
the Deaf at Flint for five years. He was 
elected to and served two terms in Congress 
(the Fifty-first and Fifty-second), and was 
elected to the Fifty-third Congress by a plu- 
rality of nine votes, but the seat was given to 
his opponent by the adverse Democratic ma- 
jority in Congress. In 1895 he was appointed 
by Governor Rich as president of the Michigan 
Commission with duties pertaining to the 
Chickamauga, Chattanooga and Missionary 
Ridge National Military Park. As such, he 
compiled and published a report thereon, of 
which 10,000 copies were ordered printed by 
the State, for distribution. 

The Belknaps were originally from Eng- 
land, coming to and locating at Woburn, 
Mass., in 1637. The father and mother of 
Charles E., elames A., and Mary (Butler) Bel- 
knap, were from Vermont, but resided for a 
time in Massena, I^T. Y., where Charles E. was 
born Oct. lY, 1846. His paternal and ma- 
ternal grandfathers were both soldiers in the 
war of 1812 and a great great grandfather 
served in the revolutionary war. Commander 
Charles Belknap, in charge of the navy yard 
at Annapolis, and Rear- Admiral George E. 
Belknap, represent a branch of the family. 
Mr. Belknap was married in 1866 to Miss 
Chloe Caswell, daughter of David Caswell, of 
Grand Rapids. Four daughters, three of 
whom are married, are the fruit of the union. 
Mr. Belknap is a member of the Loyal Legion, 
G. A. R., and Pythians. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



287 



RANSTEY, FREDERICK ELI. The 
IRanney Refrigerator Company, of Greenville, 
Michigan, of which Frederick Eli Ranney is 
the president, was organized in 1892, and 
since that time it has grown into one of the 
largest manufacturing plants of its kind in 
Michigan, giving employment to 300 men 
^nd manufacturing in 1899 40,000 refrigera- 
tors. It is still a growing institution, and the 
plant is being increased 50 per cent for 1900. 

Frederick E. Ranney, the organizer of this 
industry in Greenville, is a native of Massa- 
chusetts and was born in Ashfield, Mass., July 
2, 1858. His schooling stopped when he wa^ 
15 years of age, and he commenced to look 
out for himself at that age, working first on 
a tobacco farm near Sunderland, Mass., as a 
farm hand, and thus earning the first dollar 
he could call his own. He came to Michigan 
in 1872 and located at Belding, whither his 
brother had preceded him. He was disap- 
pointed in his search for employment, and 
determined to return east, but was persuaded 
by his brother to remain, and the following 
week he went to work as a carpenter, follow- 
ing that vocation during the summer and in 
the following winter going into the lumber 
camps. He saved his money and in 187T had 
suflicient to enable him to start a liverj^ and 
feed barn in Belding. That fall the, now 
Pere Marquette Railroad having a spur track 
into Belding, Mr. Ranney secured the contract 
to operate the street car system between Beld- 
ing and Kiddville. He occupied "the many 
positions" on the railway, and "all at the same 
time," being "street car conductor, driver, 
general manager and track laborer." The 
jocose travelling men gave the line the name 
of "The Hay-Burner Line." For seven years 
Mr. Ranney did all the work on the little street 
car system, maintaining at the same time his 
livery business, and by good management and 
judicious investments he managed to save sev- 
eral thousand dollars. 

Saturday night, August 30, 1884, Mr. 
Ranney gave up his positions as driver, conduc- 
tor, general manager, etc., of the street car 
line, and the next Monday morning entered 




FREDRICK ELI RANNEY. 



the manufacturing world. He had already 
helped organize the Belding Manufacturing 
Company, into which he had put all his earn- 
ings, and soon became president and general 
manager of that concern. He remained in 
this position, ably conducting the affairs of the 
company until 1892, when he sold out his 
interests and purchased the building of the 
Potato Starch Factory in Greenville, and 
organized the Ranney Refrigerator Company. 
The growth of the new enterprise fully justi- 
fied Mr. Ranney's keen business descernment, 
and the affairs of the company are in a most 
flourishing condition. 

Mr. Ranney married, in 1875, Miss Mary 
L. Ellis, daughter of Louis Ellis, of Belding, 
one of the first settlers in that portion of the 
state, having located there in 1842. He has ' 
four children. Ellis W. is attending the 
Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing, and 
Carrie L., Hattie B., and LeRoy are attend- 
ing school in Belding. 

Mr. Ranney is a member of the Masonic 
Fraternity, a Royal Arch Mason and a Knigiit 
of Pythias. 

As a business man he is known for his 
directness in all his dealings, and for his ability 
to carry his plans to a successful completion. 
He has done much for Greenville, ei^ecially 
in giving employment to many hea^ <rf 
.families in that city. 



mn 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



'^M^^KM 


HK 




^^^^^^^hH^^^H 


I^^B 


■H^^^;; 


«.»,.^^g^^^^^^^^^9|^^^^^^^^^^^^H 


^^^^^^^■H 


^^^^^^t**^.' V 


^r^^^^!^^^^^^^w|^9Hppi^^^^H 


^^^^^^^^H 


^HH^^^ 


I '''^^^^^^^^SsSBF^^^^B^^^M 


^^^^^^^^H 


^I^HP^^r 


'^^^^^^^^^S^^SBbHT .j^^^BB^^^^B 




^^^^^■^^^ 


i-i '^^^^^^^^MBK^m ^^-^^^^^^^^1 


^^^^^^^^H 




-^^^^^H^^^hhbB^^^I 


^^^^^^H 


^H^K^ 


,ft4^^^^HH^^^^^^H^H^^^^H 


^^^^^^^^^^H 


^^^^^^^^^^^' 


/5'*^^^^|^^^|H^^^^^^H 


^^^H 


^^^^^H^^'^ 




^^^^^1 


^^^^^K 


V- .^^^HH^^^H^^^^^^^l 


^^^^^^1 


^^^^^^E 








: .^^H^^^^^^^^^H 


^^^^H 


^^^H^l 


^H 


■ 


■ 


« ^^ " I'.^ys^^^^M^BpH^BIIIIIBIIBpil 


1 


1 


£:.i^sS^^^^^^H 


^^^H^l 


^H|H|^^ 








' .\ '- "/ * -• V^^jl^^^r^^^^^^^^^^S 


^^^^^^Hj^ 


^^^ffi^'f^ 


.,' ' '^'"'' ' ''-." l'*\"Vf^ 


^^^^ 


^^^F^^< 



HON. JOSEPH MOSS GAIGE. 

GAIGE, HON. JOSEPH MOSS. Hon. 
Joseph Mofes Gaige, of Croswell, Michigan, 
was born in West Burlington, New York, 
June 13, 1848. His father, Henry. W. 
Gaige, was bom in West Burlington, Otsego 
county, New York, December 7th, 1820. The 
family is of English descent and came to this 
country in the latter part of the seventeenth 
century. Young Gaige attended the district 
schools until he was about 14 years* of age, 
when he was sent to the Oneida Conference 
Seminary at Cazinovia, New York, where he 
took a preparatory course, and then went to 
the Cooperstown Seminary at Cooperstown, 
New York, where he prepared for college. In 
1866 he was sent west to join Truman Moss, 
his uncle, a lumberman, of Croswell, Michi- 
gan. He expected to take a position in the 
office, but the practical old uncle put him in 
charge of the docks at Lexington, Michigan, 
paying him $25 a month and giving him his 
board for his services. The following winter 
his uncle secured him a position in the. law 
offices of Walker & Kent, at Detroit, where 
the young man read law and looked after the 
clerical work in the office and the collection 
department, earning barely enough to pay 



his expenses. Satisfied with the way the lad 
had conducted himself during the trials im- 
posed upon his nephew the old uncle assisted 
him to enter the law department of the ITni- 
versity of Michigan, from which Mr. Gaige 
graduated in the spring of 1869. He was 
admitted to the bar by examination before the 
Supreme Court October 7 of the same year, 
lie then removed to Detroit, Avhere he opened 
up a vessel and ship brokerage business at the 
foot of Woodward avenue, meeting with great 
success, but selling out the next winter to 
join his uncle in the lumbering business at 
Croswell. About the first of that year he was 
made junior partner in the firm, which then 
became Moss, Mills & Gaige. The firm did 
an extensive business in Sanilac and Huron 
counties. The firm was dissolved on the death 
of the senior member, Truman Moss, March 
28, 1883. 

Mr. Gaige then started a private banking 
institution at Croswell, under the name of 
the Sanilac County Bank, and in 1885 sold 
out to become the manager of the Truman 
Moss estate. He continued at this until the 
estate was settled in 1895. Mr. Gaige incor- 
porated and organized the State Bank of 
Croswell and was elected president. He is 
also president of the State Bank at Carson- 
ville, Mich., the State Bank of Deckerville, 
Mich., and one of the heaviest stockholders 
and vice-president of the Croswell Milling 
Company at Croswell, Mich. Mr. Gaige is a 
large stockholder in the Sanilac Jeffersonian, 
the official republican organ of Sanilac 
county. He married Miss Mary Ella Jones, 
daughter of M. V. K. Jones, in 1869, at Ann 
Arbor, Mich. 

Mr. Gaige is a republican. He was state 
senator of Michigan from the twentieth sen- 
atorial district in 1895-96, being elected on 
the republican ticket with 2,200 plurality. 
He is a thirty-second degree Mason, being 
Past Eminent Commander of Lexington Com- 
mandery, K. T., No. 27, a Shriner of Moslem 
Temple, Detroit, and a member of the Michi- 
gan Sovereign Consistory, Detroit. He 
platted the town of Sandusky, Sanilac county, 
Mich., now known as Sanilac Center. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



289 



DURAND, JUDGE GEORGE HAR- 
MON^. Judge George Harmon Durand is 
another Michigan man who has risen to a 
position of affluence and the top round of the 
ladder of his profession from a humble begin- 
ning as a farmer's boy. He was bom Febru- 
ary 21, 1838, on a farm near Cobleskill, 
Schohanie county, J^ew York, and, although 
his early opportunities were limited, he 
possessed the grit and determination neces- 
sary to make the most of them. He worked 
in summer that he might attend school during 
the winter months, and mastered his books 
sufficiently to enable him to become a district 
school teacher. He took a course in the 
seminary located at Lima, New York, and in 
1856 came to Michigan, where he at once 
secured a school at Oxford, in Oakland 
county. The following year he went to 
Flint, where he now resides, and commenced 
the study of law under the direction of Col. 
AYm. M. Fenton, but outside of the office. 
He was admitted to the bar before Judge 
eTosiah Turner in 1858, and at once began an 
active practice. His ability was recognized 
by his appointment as city attorney, and he 
held that office one year (1858). He is a 
staunch Democrat, and has several times been 
called upon by his party to accept high posi- 
tions, and in all cases he has been a credit 
to the honorable positions he has filled. In 
1862 he was elected to the common council, 
and served five years. While in this position 
he was instrumental in having several streets 
opened to valuable city property after a long 
contest, and as a testimonial for his services 
the people of Flint presented him with a set 
of silver. In 1873 Mr. Durand was elected 
mayor of Flint, and re-elected the following 
year. In the fall of 1874 he accepted the 
nomination to Congress on the Democratic 
ticket, and was elected against Josiah "W. 
Begole. He was re-nominated in 1876, but 
was defeated for re-election by the Hon. Mark 
S. Brewer. During Mr. Durand's term in 
Congress he was acting chairman of the 
important committee on commerce, an un- 
usual honor to confer on a new member. 




JUDGE GEORGE HARMON DURAND. 

Resuming his practice of law, Mr. Durand 
formed a co-partnership in 1884 with John J. 
Carton, which still continues. In 1892 Gov. 
Winans appointed Mr. Durand justice of the 
Supreme Court to succeed Judge Morse, who 
had resigned to accept the nomination for gov- 
eraor. He filled out the term until a suc- 
cessor was chosen, and in the fall of 1893 
was appointed special counsel for the United 
States in the famous Pacific coast conspiracy 
cases. The cases were concluded in 1896. 

In 1893 Judge Durand was elected presi- 
dent of the Michigan State Bar association, 
and was the first president of the board of 
State Law Examiners. He is still a member 
of that board. He was Grand Master of the 
Michigan Grand Lodge of Masons in 1876, 
and in 1893 was elected Presidential ElectOr- 
at-large for the eastern district of Michigan. 
He owns a fine farm near the city of Flint. 

Judge Durand married Miss Sarah A. Ben- 
son at Mindon, New York, August, 1858, 
and he has two children. Charles A. Durand, 
his son, is 38 years of age, and a member of 
the firm of Durand & Carton at Flint, Mich. 
Elizabeth A. Durand lives at home with her 
parents. 

Judge Durand is a member of Michigan 
Sovereign Consistory and of Moslem Temple^ 
Detroit. Nobles of the Mvstic Shrina 



290 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




HON. WILLIAM WEBSTER. 

WEBSTER, HON. WILLIAM. The 
Hon. William Webster was elected mayor of 
Sault Ste. Marie, the city in which he lives, 
in 1897, and while in that office he was largely 
instrumental in having the streets of that 
beiautifnl little city macadamized. In the first 
year six miles of this modem paving was built, 
and this step, in the direction of the making 
of a city in the present time, has resulted most 
beneficially, for all the streets that are being 
built there now are of th^ same material. 

Mr. Webster is still a young man and a be- 
liever in the spirit of the age, ^^progress.^' He 
was born in St. Helens, Huron County, On- 
tario, February 10, 1863. His ancestors 
came from Aberdeen, Scotland, and his father, 
James Webster, went to Canada from Scot- 
land. As a boy young Webster had very few 
advantages in the way of receiving an 
education that are given to most youths of 
today, and it was not until his family moved to 
Sault Ste. Marie in 1874 that he was able to 
attend school. The first winter in his new 
home was a hard one. He was obliged to 
rernain away from the district school a great 



Bina 

OYt\ 



portion of the time, and was employed driving 
a delivery and express wagon at 25 cents per 



day, with the privilege of hauling water for 
a few families after work hours, to earn 
enough mon^y and purchase clothes and shoes 
so that he could take his place with the other 
scholars in the High School. 

The following summer he drove a mule on 
the canal, earning $1.50 a day until the close 
of navigation, and helped to support the fam- 
ily Avith his earnings. When he was 17 years 
of age he was earning $400 a year clerking 
in the general store of W. C. Given, where he 
remained for three years. His health then 
commenced to fail, so he went to Dakota, 
where he pre-empted a piece of land and 
farmed for six months, until, his health re- 
turning, he Avent home and clerked in the 
store of Sevald & Pease. The firm made an 
assignment July 4, 1886, and Mr. Webster 
v\^as appointed assignee. He closed out the 
ft28,000 stock that fall, and in the beginning 
of 1887 went into partnership in a general 
store under the firm name of Tubbs & Web- 
ster. After a few months he sold out and 
purchased an interest in the steamboat St. 
M arys, which was in the passenger and freight 
service between Sault Ste. Marie and Mar- 
quette. He acted as clerk on the steamer all 
summer imtil navigation closed in the fall. 

January 1, 1888, he took his seat as County 
Clerk of Chippewa County, in which office he 
remained until 1896. During this period he 
read law and was admitted to the bar Septem- 
ber 26, 1893. In September, 1895, he became 
associated with Hon. H. M. Oren, the present 
Attorney-General of Michigan, in the law 
business under the name of Oren & Webster. 

Mr. Webster was elected mayor of Sault 
Ste. Marie in 1897. He was chairman of the 
Board of Supervisors for six years and has 
been postmaster since 1897. He is a Mason 
and a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Com- 
mandery, K. T. He is also Past Master of the 
Blue Lodge and Past High Priest of the Chap- 
ter, and has been chairman of the Eepub- 
lican County Committee for the past six 
years. Mr. Webster married Miss Bertha F. 
Bateman at Port Arthur, August 27, 1889. 
They have four children. Bertha F., aged 9 ; 
Bessie, aged 7; William W., aged 5, and Joy, 
aged 2 years. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



291 



VATJGHAN, COLEMAJ!^ CHAUNCY. 

Coleirmn Chauncy Vaughan, of St, Jdiins, 
Michigan, comes from good, old New Eng- 
land stock, his parents being farmers in Ver- 
mont, and moving from there to Machias, 
New York state, where, August 1, 1857, the 
subject of this sketch was bom. 

From his sixth until his twelfth year the 
boy attended the district school near his home, 
and then, his father having died a few years 
before, he was sent to live with his uncle, 
attending district school and three terms at 
Ten Brook academy at Franklinville, N. Y. 
When he left school he started for Michigan, 
arriving at Lapeer in 1873. S. J. Tomlin- 
son, publisher of the Lapeer Clarion, gave 
the yoimg traveler an opportunity by taking 
him on the paper as an apprentice. For his 
first year's work, besides his board, young 
Vaughan was paid one dollar a week. This 
was raised to two dollars during the second 
year, three dollars for the third and four 
dollars for the fourth year. At the end of 
his apprenticeship the young man had just 
$1.84 coming to him; but as he had become 
a valuable man, Tomlinson made him fore- 
man of the office, and as such he remained 
until 1878, when he sought to better himself 
by going to Detroit. There he readily 
secured a position in the job office of James 
E. Scripps, later holding cases on the Detroit 
Free Press. 

After two years in Detroit, he returned to 
I^ew York state, where, at Sardinia, he 
entered the employ of his step-father as book- 
keeper in his woolen mill at that place. 

Later he became a traveling man on the 
road, and in 1884 he returned to Lapeer and 
bought the Lapeer Clarion for $7,000. 
Under his management the paper met with 
good success, and in 1887 hie sold the plant 
and paper back to the original owner, Mr. 
Tomlinson, for $10,000. 

After this, Mr. Vaughan became engaged 
in various enterprises, drifting from one thing 




COLEMAN CHAUNCY VAtrOHAN. 

to another until 1889, when he found that the 
Clinton Kepublican, of St. eTohns, was for 
sale, and going there, he purchased the paper. 

The Clinton Republican is one of the 
strongest Eepublican weeklies in the state of 
Michigan, and under Mr. Vaughan's man- 
agement it has proved one of the best paying 
propositions of its kind in the country. It 
exercises considerable influence throughout 
the county, and its politics are backed up with 
a sound philosophy. 

Mr. Vaughan has always been a Republi- 
can, and is a leading spirit in that party in 
both local and state politics. He is at present 
a member of the Republican State Central 
Committee. He has been an alderman at 
Lapeer; president of St. Johns village two 
terms ; member of the board of control of the 
State Asylum at Ionia, '93 to '97; is a mem- 
ber of the board of trustees State Haiise of 
Correction, Ionia, and president of the St. 
Johns water and electric light board, fie it 
a Mason and a Knight Templar aiid abo a 
member of the Royal Arcanum. 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 



NEWTON, JUDGE WILLIAM. Will- 
iam Newton was bom in Soldiers' Delight, 
Baltimore county, Maryland, September, 
1829. Until he was 14 years of age his edu- 
cation was conducted by a private tutor, and 
then he was sent to Boise au Academy, "Bal- 
timore. 

He came to Michigan in 1848 and engaged 
in the saddlery business at Byron, Shiawasse 
county, when, earning enough money to pay 
his way through law school, he went to Rals- 
ton Spa, Saratoga county. New York, and 
attended a law school at Ralston for a year 
and a half. He then returned to Michigan 
and entered the law office of Lothrop & Duf- 
fidd, at Detroit. He was admitted to the bar 
by the Supreme Court of "Michigan, held in 
the old state house in Detroit in the fall of 
1 851, receiving his papers from Chief Justice 
"W^hipple of the Supreme Court. Immedi- 
ately going to Flint, Mr. Newton formed a 
partnership with Lieutenant-Governor Fen- 
ton. Impaired in health, with small practice 
and very little money, Mr. Newton remarked 
one day to his partner that if he could raise 
$500 he would go to California and seek 
health and fortune, the gold excitement being 
then at its height. Fenton loaned the money 
and soon afterwards Mr. Newton purchased 
transportation to the coast from Commodore 
Vanderbilt and made the trip by way of the 
Isthmus of Panama. He wks delayed four 
weeks at Panama, waiting for the steamer 
^*01d Tennessee," and as he had very little 
money, those were anxious days for the young 
man. The hotel was a tent, kept by an Amer- 
ican, who charged $1 for the privilege of 
sleeping on the ground under its walls. Young 
Newton slept under the blue sky and made 
the best of the worst. 

California realized all the young man 
hoped for. He found good health and a little 
wealth there. There, for the first time, he 
met with EdAvin . B. Winans, engaged in 
placer mining at Honcutt — in later years gov- 
ernor of Michigan. Later he met a man 
named Jesse Daly, a practical miner, with 



whom Newton formed a partnership. With 
Mr. Daly, they discovered "Gold Hill," in 
Yuba coimty, and in 1853 he returned to 
Michigan, not a wealthy man, but with com- 
pensation for his venture. Once more start- 
ing in the law business with Fenton, in 1853, 
at Flint, the firm met with success, until three 
years later, Mr. Newton returned to Califor- 
nia. He came back, settled in Flint and re- 
sumed his partnership with Fenton, which 
lasted until the latter's death in 1871. 

Judge Newton is a Democrat. He was 
(^ircuit Court Commissioner in Genesee 
county in 1858-59; elected Circuit Judge in 
1881, by a plurality of 1,300 over Judge 
Adams, noAv of Cheboygan; re-elected in 
1887 by 6,000 plurality, when counties gave 
4,000 plurality for Garfield. 

He has been twice married. His present 
wife v/as Miss Grace T. Hughes, of Cheat- 
ham, N. Y. He has one child, William Fen- 
ton, now four years of age. 

Judge Newton has been interested in many 
important CMses and met with great success 
as a practitioner. His cases may be found 
all through the Michigan reports from vol- 
ume 10 up to 50, the present date. 

As Circuit Judge of the Seventh Judicial 
Circuit, his decisions usually stood the test of 
the higher courts, in which respect he has 
very few superiors among the Circuit Judges 
in this state.. He was defeated for the Su- 
preme bench by Frank A. Hooker by a very 
naiTow margin — 166 votes — in the fall of 
1892. He gives much of his spare time to 
two farms, from which he says he makes 
enough to pay the expenses incident to that 
occupation, and is also the owner and raiser 
(jf standard-bred horses and Durham cattle. 
The dam of the famous young pacer Sphinx 
was bred and raised by him on his farm in 
the township of Benton, Genesee county, 
Michigan. He says he enjoys excellent 
health, and that he attributes his good health 
and strength to the mining adventure in Cali- 
fornia for over a vear. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



398 



AVOOD, EDWIN O. Ed^vin O. Wood, 
of Eliii^, Michigan, was bom in Cxoodrich, 
Genesee county, Michigan, October 29, 1861. 
His people were all New Yorkers, who came 
to this state at a Tery early date and were the 
first family to settle in Genesee county. Hi^ 
father was Thomas P. Wood and his mother 
Paulina Hulbert Wood. 

Mr. Wood was given an excellent educa- 
tion in the graded schools of Goodrich and in 
the High School at Saginaw, Michigan. Dur- 
ing his schoolboy days he earned his first 
inoney by clerking in a country store, and 
when he left school in Saginaw he went to 
Hint, where he entered the employ of George 
W. Buckingham, a clothier of that city, with 
whom he remained until 1884. He was then 
appointed postal clerk under President Cleve- 
land's administration, but he declined the 
position to accept a more promising one ^vith 
W. J. Gould & Co., of Detroit, Michigan, as 
a traveling salesman. After traveling for 
this firm for a period of three yeaxs he went 
with the large clothing firm of New York — 
Hackett, Carhart & Co. He traveled for this 
house until 1893, when he wa^ again offered 
a political petition under Cleveland's admin- 
istration, that of special agent of the United 
States treasury department, which he ac- 
cepted. For four years and three months 
Mr. Wood was with the treasury department 
and was assigned to many important cases, in- 
cluding the celebrated opium and Chinese 
smuggling cases at Portland, Oregon, and 
Puget Sound, resigning voluntarily in July, 
1897, in order to push the work of building 
up the Knights of the Loyal Guard, which 
organization had been brought to perfection 
largely through his efforts. He was elected 
the first Supreme Recorder-General of the 
order and at the first biennial election was 
chosen Supreme Commander-in-Chief, which 
oflSce he holds at the present writing. 

Mr. Wood is a Democrat and a firm be- 
liever in the principles of that party. He 
was for several years chairman of the Demo- 
cratic county committee of Genesee county. 




EDWIN O. WOOD. 

He served four years in the Michigan State 
Militia, as a member of the Flint Union 
Blues. For a brief period he was engaged in 
the manufacturing business at Flint, being a 
stockholder and interested in the patent in 
the Flint Revolving Hat Case factory. 

He married Miss Emily Crocker, daughter 
of Stephen Crocker, one of the earliest settlers 
in Genesee county, at Flint, December ' 17, 
1889. They have three boys and one girl. 

Mr. Wood is a Mason, a Knights Templar, 
a member of Michigan Sovereign Consistory, 
32°, and Moslem Temple, Mystic Shrine; 
Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Knights 
of the Loyal Guard; a member of the Mac- 
cabees, Foresters, A. O. U. W., Oddfellows, 
Royal Arcanum and Knights and Ladies of 
Security. He is an attendant at St. PauFs 
Episcopal Church, of Flint, Michigan! 

Mr. Wood's ancestors, on both sides, traoe 
to Revolutionary stock, and he is a membet 
of Michigan Sons of the Revolution. He is 
greatly interested in pure bred live stock and 
was one of the original founders of the Miefah 
igan Oxford Down Sheep Breedeiis^ Assodft* 
tion. 



iM 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




FRANKLIN WELLS. 

WELLS, FRANKLIN. A biographical 
sketch of Mr. Wells carries us back over a 
period of more than sixty years, to the time of 
a former governor, eTohn S. Barry, in whose 
store Mr. Wells was a clerk. The Wells fam- 
ily were originally from Connecticut and later 
of New York. Franklin Wells' father, Joseph 
Wells, was a merchant at Cambridge, N. Y., 
in 1822, but became a hotel keeper at Salem, 
N. Y., where the son was bom April 19th, 
1823. His mother was Lucy HoUister of Man- 
chester, Vermont. Mr. Wells' early education 
was in the primary schools, with a few terms 
in the Washington Academy, at Salem. In 
the spring of 1837 the family, in company 
with two other families, made the overland 
trip in emigrant wagons from their New York 
home to Michigan. The journey occupied 
thirty days, with its attendant hardships, when 
the Wells family located in the township of 
Mottville, St. Joseph county. Mr. Wells 
therefore ranks as one of the early pioneers, 
and has ever since made his home in St. Joseph 
coimty. In the fall of 1838 he became clerk 
in the store of Albert Andrews & Co., at Con- 
stantine, and two years later entered the store 
of John 8. Barry (afterwards Governor of the 



State), in the same capacity. In 1842 he bor- 
rowed $1,200, with which, in company with 
his first employer, Albert Andrews, he en- 
barked in a general mercantile trade. The 
partnership was terminated in 1846, when 
Mr. Wells began business alone, which he con- 
tinued up to 1873, since which time he has 
given his attention to farming, wool and grain 
buying, he being the owner of several large 
farms in the county. In a note he says : ^^If 
I have done anything to feel proud of, or that 
I would wish to have remembered by my 
friends after I am gone, it is in matters con- 
nected with agricultural and farming inter- 
ests.'' This sentiment is in admirable har- 
mony and consistency with Mr. Wells' work. 
During the 1880 decade, he was prominently 
connected with the State Agricultural Society, 
having been for several years a member of the 
executive committee and chairman of the busi- 
ness committee. In 1888 he was unanimously 
elected president of the society, which honor 
he felt impelled to decline, while still con- 
tinuing his committee duties. He was for 
twenty-seven years a member of the State 
Board of Agriculture, having in charge the in- 
terests of the State Agricultural College, and 
was for twelve years president of the board. 
He was first appointed by Gov. Bagley, who as 
a young man had been a clerk in his store, 
and was successively reappointed by Govs. 
Crosswell, Alger and Kich. He was appointed 
and served during the Harrison administration 
'as State Statistical Agent, charged with mak- 
ing, through local correspondents, special re- 
ports to the Department of Agriculture, cover- 
ing information not otherwise obtainable. 

Mr. Wells served at an early date as town- 
ship clerk and was president of the village of 
Constantino, 1870-71, and has been a member 
of the local school board for twenty-five years, 
and was for ten years its president. He was 
postmaster at Constantine, 1861-2, and again 
1882-86. Mr. Wells was one of ten corpora- 
tors composing the Constantine Hydraulic Co., 
which built the dam across the St. Joseph 
River at a cost of $40,000, by which ample 
water' is supplied. In his religious con- 
nections Mr. Wells is a Congregationalist, and 
is a Republican in politics. He was married in 
1844 to Miss Helen M. Briggs, a relative by 
marriage of his early employer. Gov. Barry. 
They had nine children, of whom two sons and 
three daughters survive, all of middle age and 
in active life. Mrs. Wells died Oct. 22, 1891. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



295 



COLGEOVE, PHILIP T. Mr. Colgrove 
is a native of the state of Indiana, having been 
born at Winchester, in that state, April 17, 
1857. His first American ancestry is traced 
in the person of Francis Colgrove, born in 
1667 and who settled in Warwick, Rhode 
Island. His fatlier w^as Charles H., from Steu- 
ben county, 'New York, and his mother was 
Catherine Van Zile, a sister of Judge Philip 
T. Van Zile of Detroit. Good educational 
advantages in his early youth, at Olivet Col- 
lege, coupled with a commendable energy and 
application, placed him some years in advance 
of the average student. He read law concur- 
rently with his literary studies and was admit- 
ted to the bar at the age of twenty-one, before 
the Supreme Court of Michigan. His first 
essay at practice was at Reed City, but in 1880 
he removed to Hastings and formed a law part- 
nership with Clement Smith, now judge of the 
Fifth Judicial Circuit. The partnership was 
terminated upon the appointment of Mr. 
Smith to the judgeship in 1893, and Mr. Col- 
grove is now senior in the firm of Colgrove & 
Potter. It is not often that a man is chosen 
to a responsible office during his first two years 
of residence in a place, but in 1882 Mr. Col- 
grove was elected prosecuting attorney of 
Barry county and was re-elected for the two 
terms folloAving, in 1884 and 1886. In 1888 
he was elected a member of the State Senate 
from his district, and was nominated for re- 
election in 1890, but declined the honor. He 
was an active and efficient member of the Sen- 
ate and was a member of the Judiciary Com- 
mittee and chairman of the Committee on In- 
surance. He was also for several years city at- 
torney of Hastings. He is a Republican in 
politics and is an earnest and active partisan, 
though not bitter or intoUerant in his partisan- 
ship. He is a member of the Michigan Club 
and has filled the position of president of the 
State League, of Republican Clubs. He was 
a presidential elector in 1892. 

Mr. Colgrove's business interests are varied. 
He is president of the Hastings Iron Co., vice- 




PHILIP T. COLGROVE. 

president of the Hastings Table Co., and a di- 
rector in the Hastings Wool Boot Co. and the 
Hastings City Bank. In his fraternal relations 
he has acquired prominence and enjoyed hon- 
ors fully equal to those that have come to him 
in professional and political life. He is w 
Knights Templar Mason and a member of the 
local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and was 
Chancellor Commander of the lodge in 1883. 
He was a member of the Grand Lodge in 1886 
and was elected Grand Master-at-Arms of that 
body, and in 1887 was elected Grand Chan- 
cellor. In 1889 he w^as elected by the Grand 
Lodge of the state as their representative to the 
Supreme Grand Lodge and was again elected 
as such in 1890. In 1894 he was elected Su- 
preme Vice-Chancellor and has come to be a 
recognized authority on the jurisprudence of 
the order. But the highest honors of the order 
awaited him in 1896, when, at the session of 
the Supreme Grand Lodge, held at Cleveland 
in August of that year, he was elected Supreme 
(chancellor of the Supreme Lodge of Knights 
of Pythias of the world. 

Mr. Colgrove has two children, Mabel^ a 
student at Vassar College, and Lawrence^ at- 
tending the Hastings public schools. 



296 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




HON. FRANCIS HEARN RANKIN. 

EANKI.V, HON. FRAJ^CIS HEAEN. 
Hon. Francis Hearn Rankin was mayor of the 
city of Flint, Michigan, in 1891, and has for 
years been a member of the board of education 
in that city, being elected treasurer of that 
body two years and is now president of the 
board. In 1881 he was elected city treasurer 
of Flint and held that office for one term. He 
was ap23ointed a member of the board of con- 
trol for the Michigan School for the Blind in 
1897 for a six years' term. At present he is in 
partnership with his father, publishing The 
Wolverine (citizen, one of the leading journals 
of this state. 

Francis H. Ea^kin was born December 28, 
1854, in Flint, Michigan, and he has lived 
in that city all his life, receiving his education 
in its public schools. His father was a prac- 
tical printer, and came to this country from the 
north of Ireland when he was a young man, 
locating in Genesee county at a very early date 
and in 1850 establishing the Genesee Whig, 
which for many years was the only Eepublican 
paper published in that county. The Whig 
was tbe original name of the Wolverine Citi- 



zen, which has always been an organ for the 
republican party and principles. 

After attending the Flint schools until his 
fourteenth year he entered his father's office 
as a printer's devil. His father was' a practical 
man and intending that his son should learn 
the business in a thorough manner, he forced 
him to start as he himself had commenced at 
the bottom of the ladder. He did not show 
him any favoritism, and treated him in the 
same manner that he did his other employees. 
It was in 1870 that young Eankin first took 
his place at one of the cases, and he worked as 
a compositor in the job room until 1881, when 
he took a half interest in the business. The 
Wolverine Citizen was run as a daily paper 
for a period of six years, but the town being 
too small to support a daily paper it was dis- 
continued, and published as a weekly. 

Mr. Eankin is best known throughout the 
state of Michigan as the Supreme Eecorder of 
the Knights of the Loyal Guard. He was one 
of the nine business men of the city of Flint 
who originated and founded that order, which 
is a fraternal beneficiary, co-operative insur- 
ance society. 

It was founded upon entirely original and 
new plans and started with a membership of 
500, February 21, 1895. Its growth has been 
steady and it is creating a strong Eeserve or 
Emergency Fund. The order is still growing, 
as its business-like methods appeal to business 
men and its fraternal features to the younger 
generation seeking good, substantial insurance. 
Mr. Eankin married Miss Caroline Pierce, 
daughter of Silas Pierce, in Flint, Michigan, 
in 1881. He has one child, a daughter, Caro- 
line Arabella Eankin, eleven years of age. 
Mr. Eankiii is a Mason, being a member of 
Genesee Valley Commandery, No. 15, Knights 
Templar, belongs to the Michigan Sovereign 
Consistory, Moslem Temple, Mystic Shrine, 
Order of Elks, Eoyal Arcanum, K. O. T. M., 
and is a Knight of the Loyal Guard. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



297 



CRAWFORD, HUGH. ALEXANDER. 
Hon. Hugh Alexander Crawford, who enjoys 
the distinction of being the youngest municipal 
executive ever elected in his home city of 
Flint, Michigan, is a son of David Crawford, 
a native of Paisley, Scotland, who came to 
America in 1842 and to Michigan in 1851, 
where he followed the business of lumbering 
for a number of years in the Lower Peninsula. 
The subject of this sketch was born at Otis- 
ville, Genesee county, Michigan, March 29, 
1873. When he was four years old his par- 
ents moved to Flint, where he attended the 
public schools and graduated from the High 
School in June, 1891. He began the active 
duties of life as a clerk in the book store of 
M. E. Carlton, where he remained for six 
months, when he embarked in a business that 
Avas more to his liking and in which he has in 
a few short years achieved marked distinction 
and prominence. This he found in the 
vehicle industry, which was just beginning to 
develop in Flint on a large scale, and he began 
his new career as a shipping clerk in the fac- 
tory of W. A. Paterson & Co. His business 
capacity and tact won for him a succession of 
advancements until he finally became general 
superintendent of the big factory plant, as 
private secretary to Mr. Paterson, who had by 
years of arduous work richly earned the 
respite that came to him in his judicious selec- 
tion of an assistant. In 1896 the concern was 
reorganized into a stock company, Mr. Craw- 
ford being appointed to his present post of 
secretary and treasurer. 

Mr. Crawford's connection with politics was 
not of his own making. The Democratic city 
convention, which nominated him for the 
mayoralty in the spring of 1899 did so without 
his sanction, and it was only under pressure 
that he consented to ratify the action of the 
convention and make the run. The younger 
element of the city and the rank and file of 
progressive citizens of both contending politi- 
cal parties rallied to his support and he was 
elected by a majority as large as that usually 
given the Republican mayoralty candidates in 
previous years. It is significant of his popular- 
ity and the general appreciation of his excep- 
tional business qualifications that he was the 
only candidate on the Democratic city ticket 
to win out in the battle of the ballots, the re- 
maining offices being captured by the Republi- 
can candidates by comfortable majorities. 
Mayor Crawford employed the same progres- 
sive methods in managing the affairs of the 
city that he does in his own private business, 
and with the united support of his council and 




HON. HUGH ALEXANDER CRAWFORD. 

business men of the city, he contributed his 
full share to the accomplishment of certain 
public improvements. that stand out conspicu- 
ously as substantial monuments to his success- 
ful administration. One of these was the arch- 
ing of the main street of the city with incan- 
descent electric lamps, which gives to the 
broad and well-paved business thoroughfare a 
strikingly attractive appearance at night. Flint 
was the first city in Michigan to adopt this 
unique and effective system of street lighting, 
and as a means of advertising the city far and 
wide it has fully justified every expectation en- 
tertained in respect to a public improvement 
which to a large extent had this particular and 
practical aim in view. The "white wings" 
system of sweeping the paved streets of the 
city is another beneficial result of Mayor Craw- 
ford's progressive administration and has given 
to the city a cleanliness that has been a bless- 
ing to its inhabitants. 

As secretary and treasurer of the W. A. 
Paterson Carriage Company, Mr. Crawford is 
connected with an institution that manufac- 
tures 30,000 vehicles a year and gives employ- 
ment to 450 men. Mr. Crawford is a member 
of Genesee Valley Commandery, No. 15, 
Knights Templar; a Shriner of Moslem Tem- 
ple, Detroit; a member of the Michigan 8ov* 
ereign Consistory at Detroit, and of ^e Inde- 
pendent Order of Foresters, the Knii^ts of the 
Loyal Guard and the Benevojient and Protee* 
tive Order of Elks. 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




HARRY DIMICK JEWELL. 

JEWELL, HARRY DIMICK. The pres^ 
ent Judge of Probate of Kent county is one 
of the young men of mark who have forced 
their way to the front from humble begin- 
nings, and of which Michigan has furnished so 
many bright examples during the past few 
years. The father of Mr. Jewell was in early 
life a journalist. The Jewells were originally 
from New England. The father and mother 
of Mr. Jewell, Oliver P. and Hannah (Dimick) 
Jewell, settled in the township of Solon, Kent 
county, from Ovid, X. Y., in 1856. In a little 
clearing chopped out of the pine forest, a log 
house was built and the work of making a farm 
begun. When young Jewell was old enough 
to attend school he entered the Cedar Springs 
LTnion school, to and from which for several 
years he walked, a distance of two and onic-half 
miles. Graduating from the High School at 
the age of seventeen (1886), he began the 
study of law with D. C. Lyle, an attorney at 
Cedar Springs, alternating his time between 
farm work in the summer and study during the 
winter months. He entered the law depart- 
ment of the University in the fall of 1889 and 
graduated in the spring of 1891. Then taking 
the post-graduate course he received the degree 



of LL. M. (Master of Laws) in 1893. While 
at the University he did journalistic work, edi- 
torial and correspondence. He was one of the 
founders of the 11. of M. Daily and for several 
years one of the editors of the Michigan Law 
Journal. He was for two years assistant law 
librarian at the University, and was appointed 
by the Board of Regents, Assistant Marshall 
Professor of Law, the small compensation re- 
ceived for this service helping him to pay his 
necessary expenses. He was admitted to prac- 
tice before the State Supreme Court at Lan- 
sing in 1891, and subsequently before the U. 
S. Supreme Court at Washington. Locating 
at Grand Rapids in June, 1892, he formed a 
co-partnership with Judge Reuben Hatch, but 
liaving been appointed Register of Probate 
Jan. 1st, 1893, the partnership was then 
terminated. This position he held for four 
years under the then Probate Judge Cyrus 
E. Perkins, when, on January 1st, 1897, he 
took his seat as Judge of Probate for Kent 
county. The election of a young man of 
twenty-seven years of age to so important an 
office, Mr. Jewell having been born in 1869, 
is certainly a marked tribute to his ability and 
fitness. Although an active Republican in 
pohtics, he has administered the affairs of his 
office in an entirely non-partisan manner, and 
his decisions have been uniformly sustained or 
aflSrmed by the higher courts. 

Judge Jewell became a member of the Mich- 
igan Probate Judges' Association in 1898, and 
was secretary of a committee that drafted the 
rules of practice for the Probate Courts, which 
has been approved and adopted by the Su- 
preme Court. He is also a member of a com- 
mittee which has in preparation a uniform 
series of blanks for use in the Probate Courts. 
In a business way he is connected with a few 
industries in Grand Rapids. He is a member 
of the Grand Rapids Board of Trade, of the 
Peninsular Club, has taken the higher Masonic 
degrees and belongs to the Knights of Pythias, 
Maccabees and Modern Woodmen of America. 
Miss Euphemia E. Smith, daughter of Rev. 
J. Malcolm Smith; of Churdan, la., became 
Mrs. Jewell in 1894. They have two children. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



W 



THOMPSON, WILLIAM BAKER. The 
line of Thompsons represented by Wm. B. 
settled in New Haven, Conn., in 1638, coming 
from England. An hundred years later they 
removed to Goshen, Conn., in 1750 to Stan- 
ford, Dutchess county, N. Y., and in 1793 to 
Fort Ann, N. Y., where Wm. B. was born 
August 27th, 1838. He is seventh in descent 
from the original emigrant ancestor, Anthony 
Thompson. The family genealogy is there- 
fore traced thus : John (son of Anthony) and 
wife Hellena; Samuel (son of John) and wife 
Rebecca Bishop; Samuel (son of Samuel) and 
wife Esther Ailing; Caleb (son of Samuel) 
and wife Lydia Haskins; Judah (son of Caleb 
of Stanford, N. Y.) and wife Mary Harris; 
Israel (son of »Tudah of Fort Ann, N. Y.) and 
wife Martha Ann Baker, and Wm. B., son of 
Israel, born as above, and married June 20th, 
J 883, at Chattanooga, Tenn., to Emma, daugh- 
ter of Judge 1). M. Key and wife Elizabeth 
Lenoir. It is worthy of note that the year of 
Mr. Thompson's nativity was the two hun- 
dredth from the first coming of his ancestor 
to America. Mrs. Thompson died in 1886 
without issue. 

Mr. Thompson's education was academic, 
he having passed two and one-half years at 
Fort Edward, ]^. Y., after leaving the com- 
mon school. Soon after leaving school he 
came to Hudson, Mich., which has since been 
his home. Some of his mother's family have 
been residents of Hudson since a very early 
period in the state's history. He was commis- 
sioned a second lieutenant in the Eleventh 
Michigan Cavalry and was mustered in with 
the regiment, serving until the close of the 
war, when he was mustered out as first lieu- 
tenant. After the war he returned to Hud- 
son, and in 1867 engaged with his brother, G. 
I. Thompson, in the banking business, which 
is continued as the Thompson Savings Bank, 
he retaining his interest therein. 

For seventeen years he was connected with 
the PostoflBce Department, starting as route 
agent in 1868 between Toledo and Chicago. 




U: a tWILLIAM BAKER THOMPSON, 

He was successively promoted, to be chief 
clerk, assistant superintendent, and superin- 
tendent of the ^ew York and Chicago fast 
mail, and subsequently superintendent of the 
Ninth Division. In 1878 he became general 
superintendent, llailway Mail Service, and 
during President Arthur's administration was 
Second Assistant Postmaster-General, retiring 
at the beginning of President Cleveland's first 
term. He is now of the firm of Thompson & 
Slater, attorneys before the executive depart- 
ments in Washington, although his home re- 
mains in Hudson. He is a member of the Mili- 
tary Order of the Loyal Legion, Sons oi the 
American Revolution, and Sons of Colonial 
Wars of the District of Columbia; also a mem- 
ber of Lebanon Lodge, No. 26, and Phoenix 
Royal Arch, Chapter No. 99, F. & A. M. of 
Hudson. He is also a member of the Michigan 
(Republican) Club of Detroit. He has always 
been a Republican, but never held an elective 
office. He has been the treasurer of tl^e Be- 
publican Congressional Camfiaign Obmmittee 
since 1893. 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




. JAMES EDWARD DOYLE. 

DOYLE, elAMES EDWARD. That Mr. 
Doyle IS of Irish descent may be inferred by 
his name, and that he is thoroughly American 
is assured both by origin and by the fact that 
he was born on Michigan soil, he having first 
seen the light at Kalamazoo, May 5th, 1856. 
He attended the Kalamazoo public schools 
until fifteen years of age, and then became 
messenger boy in the telegraph office of the 
Michigan Central Railroad Co., without com- 
pensation other than the privilege of learning 
the operators art. This privilege he improved, 
and in a very short time was able to receive 
and transmit messages. In 1872 he was given 
his first assignment as operator. He arose in 
esteem and confidence of the management for 
the next six years. Was operator at various 



points on the line between Chicago and De- 
troit, the last two years being in the office of 
the superintendent at Chicago. 

In 1878 he quit the railroad and opened a 
grocery and supply store in Kalamazoo. The 
enterprise met with success from the first, and 
by strict attention to business, in 1884 was the 
largest and most prosperous of its kind in Kala- 
mazoo. In 1887 he sold out, and embarked in 
the confectionery business as a manufacturer 
and Avholesale dealer, continuing the business 
until 1892, when he sold out, having several 
years previous to this taken interest in the 
American Carriage Co., at Kalamazoo, and 
being one of its principal stockholders he be- 
came its manager in 1893 and still so con- 
tinues. Under Mr. Doyle's management the 
American Carriage Co. has forged to the front. 
Having two large and commodious factories, 
one located on the Michigan Central tracks 
and the other on the Chicago, Kalamazoo & 
Saginaw and Michigan Central junctions, with 
repositories located in Chicago, N^ew York and 
Washington. 

The American Carriage Co. is making a 
-specialty of fine pleasure vehicles, stanhopes, 
phaetons, surreys and up-to-date vehicles in all 
varieties. The American Carriage Co.'s pro- 
duct is known and sold throughout the United 
States. 

Mr. Doyle is also interested in several other 
lines of manufacture in Kalamazoo. He is a 
Democrat in politics, and is a member of the 
Michigan Carriage Builders' Association, also 
belongs to the Elks, Kalamazoo Lodge, No. 50. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



801 



SPAULDING, OLIVER LYMAN, was 

born in Jaffrey, K. H., August 2nd, 1833; 
son of Lyman and Susan (Marshall) Spaulding. 
He is descended from Edward Spaulding, who 
came to America from England in 1632, set- 
tling in Massachusetts. In his boyhood he 
worked on his father's farm, and received .such 
education as was afforded by the country 
schools of the period. He fitted for college by 
reading Latin and- Greek with the local clergy- 
men, and in 185 J, his family removing to 
Michigan, he entered Oberlin College, and 
graduated in 1855. His college expenses were 
met, except such slight assistance as his father 
could afford him, by manual labor during the 
college terms and by teaching in vacations. 
For three years he was engaged in teaching 
in Ohio and Michigan, but at the same time he 
carried on the study of law and was admitted 
to the bar in 1858 at St. Johns, Mich., where 
he has since resided. The same year he was 
elected a Regent of the University of Michi- 
gan. In 1862 he entered the military service 
as a captain in the Twenty-third Regiment of 
Michigan Infantry, and was successively pro- 
moted to major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel 
and brevet-brigadier general, and continued in 
service until mustered out at the close of the 
war. The service of his regiment extended over 
a wide range of territory, both east and west, 
and included some of the severest engagements 
of the war. On his muster out he resumed the 
practice of his profession at St. Johns. In 
1806 he was elected Secretary of State of 
Afichigan and re-elected in 1868. In 1875 he 
was appointed a special agent of the Treasury 
Department, a position he held until he re- 
signed to take his seat in Congress, to which 
he was elected in 1880. In 1883 he was chair- 
man of a commission sent to Hawaii to investi- 
gate alleged violations of the Hawaiian Reci- 
procity Treaty. He was Assistant Secretary of 
the Treasury under the administration of 
President Harrison, and was re-appointed to 
the same position by President McKinley. 
For several years he was a member of the 
Republican State Committee of Michigan and 
was a delegate to the National Republican 




oliver:lyman spaulding. 

Convention in 1896. lie is prominent in 
Masonry and has filled the highest chairs in 
all the Masonic grand bodies of Michigan. He 
is also a member of the military order of the 
Loyal Legion and of the (7 rand Army of the 
Republic. He is a communicant of St. John's 
Episcopal church, and for twenty-five years 
was senior warden of the parish. 

In 1856 he was married to Jennie Mead of 
Hillsdale, who died in 1857; in 1859 he mar- 
ried her sister, Martha M. Mead, who died in 
1861 ; in 1863 he married M. Cecilea Swegles, 
daughter of John Swegles, founder of St. 
elohns, and former Auditor-General of Michi- 
gan. He has five children, Frank M., a hard- 
ware merchant at St. Johns; Edna C, a gradu- 
ate of Wellesley College, Mass. ; Oliver L., Jr., 
a graduate of the literary and law departments 
of the University of Michigan, and now a lieu- 
tenant in the 3d United States Artillery; John 

C, a graduate of the literary department of the 
University of Michigan and the law depart- 
ment of Columbian University, Washington, 

D. C, and Thoma& Marshall, a student in the 
literary department of the University of 
Michigan. 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




HON. MATHEW DAVISON. 

DAVISON, HON. MATHEW. About 
twelve miles from the city of Belfast, in Ire- 
land, James Davison, the father of the subject 
of this biography, owned and operated a small 
farm, and in conjunction with this occupation, 
was also a weaver of that fine quality of linen 
for which Ireland has been famous for many 
years. 

On this farm, elanuary 4, 1839, Mathew 
Davison was born, but when he was only a 
year old his parents came to America, and set- 
tled near Adrian, Michigan. The following 
year they moved into the township of Forest, 
Genesee county, being the third family to 
locate in that section, which was then thickly 
wooded. The farm had to be made out of the 
wilderness, and the pioneers lived an extremely 
primitive life, burning pine-knots instead of 
candles. No school was established until 
Mathew reached his tenth year, and when the 
district school was inaugurated, Mathew took 
advantage of a few winter terms until he was 
fifteen years of age, when his father died, and 
as Mathew was the eldest in a family of seven 
children the heavy responsibilities of the fam- 
ily support fell upon his youthful shoulders. 
He worked the little farm until his brothers 



were able to handle it, and then at the age of 
twenty-two he l^ft home to work as a farm 
hand and in the lumbering camps. 

He secured one more term at school in 
lloyal Oak, Michigan, when he was twenty- 
two years old, and the following year became 
a clerk in a- general store operated by Benja- 
min Colhrain, in Flint, Michigan, where he 
was paid $22 a month and his board. He next 
engaged himself to Henry Brown, clothier. 
Four years' experience in the clothing business 
gave him sufficient insight into its workings 
and decided him to start out in it for himself. 
Taking his savings, which amounted to about 
$664, Mr. Davison went to Eochester, N. Y., 
to see if he could get credit and a stock of goods 
from some of the firms in that city. The firm 
of Stetheimer, McDonald & Co. was impressed 
favorably Avith the young man's straightfor- 
ward application and gave him a credit of 
$8,000, so returning to Flint, Mr. Davison 
took half of a small store. When his stock of 
goods arrived he did not have money enough 
to pay the freight, but the fortunate sale of a 
new trunk for $18 enabled him to pay the 
railroad company. The business was success- 
ful from the beginning, he enlarged his store 
and stock yearly and continued in the clothing 
business for thirteen years, investing his sav- 
ings in desirable Flint city business property. 
He retired from the clothing business in 1883 
' on account of failing health, and for ten years 
farmed and handled real estate. In 1893 he 
was one of the organizers of the Union Trust 
and Savings Bank of Flint, and he has been 
connected with the same as cashier and man- 
ager since 1894. He was also one of the or- 
ganizers of the Alpena County Savings Bank 
of Alpena, Mich.; the Citizens' Commercial 
and Savings Bank, Flint, Mich., and for 
twenty years a director in the Genesee County 
Bank, also of Flint. Mr. Davison was mayor 
of the city of Flint in 1886-1887. He mar- 
ried Miss Helen M., daughter of John Eich- 
mond, at White Lake, Oakland county, Mich., 
in 1^69. He has four children, Arthur M., in 
clothing business at Flint; Nellie, wife of H. L. 
Bridgeman; Mathew, in the employ of Durant 
& Dort Carriage Co., Flint, and William H., 
student at the Michigan Military Academy. 
Mr. Davison is a Mason and K. T. ; also a mem- 
ber of Detroit Consistory. 



HISTOJIICAL SItETOHES. 



808 



bawden; fkedekic johnson. 

The career of Frederic Jojbnson Bawden has 
been a varied one. He has worked in many 
callings and is now the junior member of the 
firm of Close & Bawden, which has large ware- 
houses and docks at Hancock, Michigan, and 
deals in flour, feed, hay, grain, bricK, lime, 
cement and tile. Mr. Bawden lives in the 
town of Houghton, Michigan.. He was born in 
Eagle Harbor, Michigan, July 23rd, 1856. 
Here he attended the village school until he 
was eleven years of age and then put to work 
at a salary of $5 a week, driving a delivery 
wagon for a general store three miles from his 
home. He walked to and from his work and 
sometimes worked until 10 or 11 o'clock at 
night. He then worked for a time at the 
Petherick mine and afterwards became the 
printer's "dcAdl" in the office of the Keweenaw 
Times, where he turned the press and learned 
the art of typesetting. In 1873 the paper 
moved to Lake Linden and became the La 
Franc Pioneer, and young Bawden set type 
for the first issue, both in French and English, 
as the French compositor had not arrived 
For nearly a year he worked on this.sheet, and 
then returned to Eagle Harbor to again enter 
the general store, this time as clerk. From 
this position he went to the hotel his father 
was then running, as clerk, and while there 
took up and learned telegraphy. He received 
tAvo days' instruction in sending from the 
superintendent, W. V. Stevens, and a tape 
register was put in for receiving messages. 
Young Bawden took charge of the instrument 
and in two and one-half months discarded the 
tape system, having mastered the art of receiv- 
ing from the sounder. 

He remained as telegraph operator at Eagle 
Harbor until 1876, when he was transferred 
to a busier office at Hancock, Michigan, and 
in September, 1877, he was made the superin- 
tendent of the Mineral Eange Telegraph 
Company. He remained in this position until 
1883, and then became cashier and account- 




FREDERIC JOHNSON BAWDEN. 

ant in the general store of S. U. North & Son 
at the Quincy mine, Hancock, where he 
remained until 1888, when he was elected 
sherifl^ of Houghton county, proving a valu- 
able and efficient officer for four years. He 
then became interested in the firm of S. D. 
K'orth & Son for three years. In 18^6 Mr. 
Bawden became associated with Mr. J. A. 
Close, Jr., and has since carried on a prosper- 
ous business. 

Mr. Bawden is the president of the 
Houghton County Street Railway Company, 
now engaged in building an electric line 
around Houghton county. In 1892 he was 
nominated for the Legislature by the Demo- 
cratic party and was defeated by Carl Sheldon, 
Republican, by only 52 votes. He married 
Miss Clara Garvin, daughter of Jeremiah 
Garvin at Corfue, N". Y., in 1897, and has 
one child, Garvin Bawden, aged four years. 

Mr. Bawden is a Mason, a member of Mont- 
rose Commandery, Knights Templar, of Oalu* 
met, and the Shrine of Ahmed Temple, Mar- 
quette. He is extremely popular with the 
people of Houghton county, and highly 
respected as an able and enterprising bnsiiiefift 
man in his resident city of Hoitghtmi, 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




ROUSSEAU O. CRUMP. 



r-j 



CRUMP, ROUSSEAU O. The parents 
of Mr. Crump were from England, settling in 
Pittsford, X. Y., in 1842, where the future 
Congressman was born May 20, 1843. His 
earlv education was confined to the public 
schools of Pittsford and Rochester, N. Y. 
After learning the trade of wagon and car- 
riage builder, in the spring of 1865 he went 
west to grow up with the country, and going 
into the employ of Col. A. D. Straight, of 
Libby Prison fame, then operating a lumber 
yard at Indianapolis, Tnd. He made his first 
start in the lumber business, and while there 
Avas sent to Canada a number of times to buy 
stock for the yards. In 1868 he, as a mill- 
wright, helped build the large planing mills 
of Laird & N'ester at Winona, Minnesota, 
helping them in their lumber operations, since 
which time the latter has been his chief busi- 
ness. He first came to Michigan in 1869, 
establishing himself at Plainwell, but in De- 
cember, 1872, by reason of sickness, he 
returned to his native place at Pittsford, where 
in 1876, forming a partnership with D. B. 
Eder, he built and operated a planing mill 
and lumber yard, until 1879. In 1877 Mr. 
Crump formed one of a company that built 



and operated a powder mill near Syracuse, 
ISI. Y., Avhich blew up the same year, and most 
of his capital went up with it. His next busi- 
ness venture was in connection with an uncle 
at Simeoe, Ontario, where they operated a 
general lumber, sash and door factory and 
stave and shingle business, until the fall of 
1 881. That summer, while making a tour of 
the Great Lakes, Mr. Crump visited Bay City, 
and being impressed with the business push 
of the twin cities, and not liking Canada, he 
and his uncle decided to remove there and in 
October, 1881, moved into their new mill at 
West Bay City, Michigan, operating it until 
November, 1884, when Mr. Crump purchased 
his partner's interest and in February, 1884, 
he organized the Crump Manufacturing Co. 
as a corporation, in which he was the principal 
stockholder. This concern has grown to be 
one of the largest box and package manufac- 
turing plants in the country, employing over 
100 hands. Mr. Crump is also senior in the 
firm of R. O. Crump & Son, operating a saw- 
mill and lumbering plant at Roscommon, 
Michigan. In all of his business enterprises 
he has been noted for his energy and push, 
accompanied by fair and honest dealing, 
especially in his relations with his employes, 
with whom he has never had any disagreement. 
In politics Mr. Crump his always been a 
Republican of the stalwart type, and an active 
worker for his party. He has served four 
years as alderman, and an equal term as mayor 
of West Bay City. In 1894 he was placed in 
nomination by the Republicans as their candi- 
date for Representative in Congress from the 
Tenth Congressional District, composed of 
fifteen counties, running from Bay county 
north to the Straits of Mackinac. From hav- 
ing been for years a Democratic stronghold, 
the tide was turned by Mr. Crump's popular- 
ity, aided by his energy and sagacity, he being 
elected by a majority of 8,843 votes, over his 
opponent, who was one of the most prominent 
and wealthy lumbermen of the state, and was 
re-elected in 1895 and 1898. Mr. Crump has 
extended business interests other than those 
named. His society connections are Masonic, 
including the higher degrees, Royal Arcanum, 
Foresters, Pythians^ and United Workmen. 
He was married in 1868 to Miss Phoebe A. 
Tucker, of Oraigsville, N". Y. They have five 
children. A son, Shelley C. Crump, is man- 
ager of the Crump Manufacturing Co., and a 
daughter, Mabel A., is clerk of a committee in 
the IT. S. House of Representatives. 



HISTOEIOAI SKETCHES. 



305 



BEGOLE, CHARLES MYRON. Charles 
Myron Begole, of Flint, Michigan, president 
of the Flint City Water Works, was bom in 
Genesee Township, Genesee county, Mich., 
August 10, 1848. He is the only surviving 
son of Hon. Josiah W. Begole, who is remem- 
bered as one of the pioneers of Genesee county 
and in his day, one bt the influential men of 
this state, being its chief executive from 1883 
to 1885. 

Young Begole grew up as it were with the 
state. He was born in the old Begole home- 
stead and lived there until he was eight years 
of age, attending the district school near by 
when he was six years old, and when the fam- 
ily moved to Flint entering the public schools 
of that city. He completed the High School 
course when he was 17 and his father, desirous 
of having hii^i continue his studies, had him 
enter the Michigan Agricultural College at 
Lansing, Mich. This was during the war, and 
the only way to get to Lansing was by stage 
from St. Johns, and as Mr. Begole remembers 
the journey today it was far from being a 
pleasant one. After one year at college young 
Begole persuaded his father to let him go to 
Avork, and as his tastes ran out out-door life 
he was given employment scaling logs in the 
woods, where he earned the first dollar he 
could really call his own. His father was ex- 
tensively engaged in lumbering at that time 
at Flint and Otter Lake and in the spring of 
1867 young Begole joined the '* drive" on 
Flint river and in the course of time became 
one of the crack raftsmen on that river. In 
company with his brother, Frank, he then 
engaged in the lumbering business for him- 
self, building a mill at Otter Lake. It was not 
a success and in two years they gave it up and 
went to farming. This was in 1874, and for 
20 years Mr. Begole worked and grubbed on 
his property until it was out of debt. In 1895 
he removed to the city of Flint, where his 
father had been so greatly honored, and en- 
gaged in the manufacturing business. He is 




CHARLES MYRON BEOOLE. 

now a director in the Flint Wagon Works 
and in the Flint Gas Works, and by way of 
recreation he looks after his fine farm about 
nine miles from the city, and located as near 
as he could get the property to the old Begole 
homestead. 

Mr. Begole is a Democrat. A quiet, con- 
servative man not anxious to shine forth as a 
life in the contentment he finds in his various 
occupations. He has never sought public 
oflSce. 

Mr. Begole married Miss Emma K. Begole, 
the daughter of a farmer near Ypsilanti. The 
marriage occurred in Ypsilanti. They have 
one child, Louise Begole, who is attending 
school at Flint, Michigan. 

He is an attendant of the Presbyterian 
church in Flint, and the only fraternal order 
with which he has associated himself is the 
Knights of the Maccabees. 

The business and manufacturing concerns 
in which Mr. Begole has an interest are flour-, 
ishing institutions, the Flint Wagon Works 
having a world-wide reputAtion for the nntxir 
ber and quality of vehicles turned out by th^m. 



$06 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




ELMORE S. PETTYJOHN. 

PETTYJOHN, ELMORE S. Although 
sprung from a long line of Methodist ancestors, 
and himself a licensed local preacher in that 
denomination. Dr. Pettyjohn's life work is 
that of a physician. The Pettyjohns were of 
Virginia stock, migrating to Ohio. The 
father of Elmore S. was Collard Pitch Petty- 
john, a well known educator in Ohio. His 
mother was Elizabeth Wallace, whose grand- 
father was a prominent character in the Har- 
rison presidential campaign in 1840. Elmore - 
S. was born at Ripley, Ohio, July 9th, 1855. 
When a small lad, his parents "removed from 
Ohio to Hlinois, where he had the advantages 
of the public school, but enjoyed excellent 
home training and at an early age became a 
teacher. In 187C he entered the Indiana 
State Normal School. IIow well he improved 
his early years can be judged from the fact 
that when but sixteen years of age, he was 
granted a first grade teacher's certificate. The 
advanced schooling that followed by private 
tutors was earned by his own exertions, for 
he early learned the value of a dollar. From 
the Normal School he taught for nine years, 
latterly in city schools of Terre Haute. He 
entered Rush Medical College at Chicago, 
from which he graduated in 1882 with high 
honors. The same year he w.a? appointed to 
the medical staff of the Eastern Illinois Hos- 
pital for the Insane, where he remained three 



years, when he resigned to accept the respon- 
sible po^ition.of medical superintendent of the 
Bellevue Sanitarium at Batavia, 111., an insti- 
tution for the treatment of nervous diseases. 
While there he came into marked prominence 
and declined several advantageous offers that 
promised advancement, but the work was not 
congenial to him so he returned to Chicago 
and engaged in general practice, with nervous 
diseases as a specialty. He here enjoyed a 
large and lucrative practice, but in 1893 he 
removed to Alma, Mich., to accept the postion 
of Superrntelident and Medical Director of the 
Alma Sanitarium. Six years later, after a 
most successful medical career, he came into 
full control as lessee and proprietor. Under 
his administration the institution has acquired 
wide celebrity in the medical profession. 

Dr. Pettyjohn has contributed many valu- 
able papers to the medical journals, being 
associate editor of two on professional topics, 
and is a recognized authority on many sub- 
jects. Owing, however, to the effect on the 
doctor's health, of exhausting, steady and con- 
tinuous practice for over 18 years and the 
difficult work at the Sanitarium for the past 
seven years, without vacation, he has decided 
to relinquish his lease of the institution and his 
medical practice, for a year's rest, travel and 
study abroad. He is commissioned by the 
Governor of Michigan to visit all institutions 
for nervous diseases in Austria, France and 
Germany. He will study in Berlin, Vienna, 
Prague and Paris. He will retain his interest 
in the Sanitarium and remain a member of 
the Board of Directors. 

He is a member of and officer in many lead- 
ing medical societies in the state and nation. 
He enjoys high standing in the Methodist 
Episcopal church, both in Illinois and Michi- 
gan, and has represented with distinction the 
Michigan Conference in the Methodist Gen- 
eral Conference, session of 1900 of the church. 
In society connections, he is a Mason, a mem- 
ber of the Knights of Pythias, of the Royal 
Arcanum, and of the National Union Medical 
Examiners, being a Senator in the last named. 
He is a Republican in politics, though he has 
not desired nor held any political ofBce. He 
was joined in marriage in 1885 to Miss Ada 
E. Lozier, daughter of Rev. John Hogarth 
Lozier, D. D., of Indianapolis, Ind., now of 
Mt. Vernon, la. They have three children, 
Wallace Hogarth, Margaret and Elmore S., 
Jr. 



HISTOKIOAL SKETCHES. 



807 




HENRY NELSON LOUD. 



LOUD, HENKY NELSON. Henry Nel- 
son Lond was born at Himtsburg, Ohio, Aug. 
22, 1850. When he was five years of age, his 
parents moved to Concord, New Hampshire, 
then to Lowell, Watertown, and Medford, 
Mass, where he secured his early education. 
He then took a course at Mr. Noble's Prepara- 
tory School, intending to enter Harvard. His 
father, however, had become largely inter- 
ested in Michigan pine and moved to that 
state. For this reason it was thought best for 
him to enter the University of Michigan, 
which he accordingly did in the fall of 1869. 
In 1873 he married Miss Agnes E. Hathaway, 
of Medford, Mass., and they have six children. 

Since leaving college, he has been engaged 
in the lumber business at Au Sable, Mich. 
He entered his father's office there and has 
successively filled all positions up to manager. 
Upon the retirement of his father, Mr. Loud 
and his brothers formed a co-partnership and 
have successfully conducted the business under 
the firm name of H. M. laud's Sons Company. 
He is also secretary and treasurer of the Au 



Sable & Northwestern Eailway Company 
and is a large owner of vessel property. 

On the 13th of October, 1899, he was ap- 
pointed member of the State Board of Library 
Commissioners. He is a member of the Au 
Sable Lodge, 'No. 234, F. & A. M.; Iosco 
Chapter, No. 83; Alpena Commandery, No. 
34; Michigan Sovereign Consistory, Detroit, 
and Moslem Temple, Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, Detroit. He is also Aide-de-Gamp 
and Colonel on the staff of Major-Greneral 
Callahan, of the Uniform Kank, Knights of 
Pythias. 

Mr. Loud has always been deeply interested 
in educational matters and the comparatively 
high standard of the local schools is very 
largely due to his efforts. He is also a very 
close student of modern political problems. 
The money question especially has been very 
exhaustively studied by Mr, Loud imd hi« 
plan for an international coinage has^eeeived 
favorable comments from a great many of l&e 
highest authorities on the subject, both m fek 
country and in Europe* 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




CHARLES AUSTIN. 

AUSTIN, CHAKLES. Mr. xVustin's guid- 
ing star seems to have led him upon somewhat 
varied and irregular, though comparatively 
smooth lines. Men are not responsible for 
their temperaments, but their temperaments 
are largely responsible for their acts and the 
history that they make. An even tempera- 
ment, coupled with clear perception and the 
energy that attends a healthful physique, have 
carried Mr. Austin successfully through vari- 
ous enterprises, to a position ensuring comfort 
and competence, during the remainder of a 
well-ordered life. Born in the City of Lon- 
don, April 19th, 1834, he received the ele- 
ments of an education popularly termed the 
three R's. . His father, Charles Austin, was of 
the old order of mechanics, retailing his own 
make of footwear. Later he moved to New 
Zealand and became a Wesleyan minister. 
His mother was Marguette Moody. During 
the popular disturbances and revolution of 
1848 young Austin imbibed the principles of 
Eepublicanism as opposed to monarchy and 
with the consent of his parents emigrated to 
and subsequently became a citizen of the 
Great Republic, an important event in his life 
which he has never regretted. 



• Charles Austin earned his first dollar sell- 
ing newspapers and magazines on- the streets 
of London. He learned the trade of a shoe- 
maker and in 1852, with three dollars and a 
steerage ticket to New York, he separated 
from his parents, who emigrated to New Zea- 
land, and whom he did not again see for nearly 
twenty years. He found work at his trade in 
Albany, N. Y., going from thence to Little 
Falls, N. Y., and later opened a shop of his 
own at IJtica, N. Y. In 1854 he sold his busi- 
ness and moved to Concord, Jackson County, 
Michigan, Avhere he found work at his trade. 
He attended the first Republican gathering 
''Under the Oaks'' at Jackson, July 6, 1854, 
and afiiliated with the new party, with w^hich 
he has since uniformly acted. He moved to 
Homer, Calhoun County, in 1855, still fol- 
lowing his trade, and in 1857 removed to Bed- 
ford, where he opened a general store, and in 
1872 moved to Battle Creek, and became a 
partner with Peter Hoffmaster in the dry 
goods trade, so continuing for ten years. In 
1882 he became senior partner in the whole- 
sale grocery and commission firm of Austin, 
Godsmark & Co., but withdrew from , active 
connection with the business in 1894, to accept 
the position of vice-president of the National 
Bank of Battle Creek, with the duties of active 
president, which position he now holds. 

Mr. Austin was elected Mayor of Battle 
'Creek in 1876, was elected to the lower house 
of the Legislature in 1880 and to the State 
Senate in 1882 and again in 1884, and was 
among the most useful and influential mem- 
bers of both bodies, serving on important com- 
mittees and showing himself at all times punc- 
tual in his attendance, clear-headed and in- 
corruptible. He was delegate to the National 
Republican Convention at Minneapolis in 
1892 and was made a member of the Commit- 
tee on Resolutions. 

Mr. Austin's New Year in 1855 was made 
memorable by his marriage with Miss Lucy 
D. Taylor of Concord. They have three sons, 
Oliver T., traveling salesman for a Chicago 
house; Charles J., in the grocery trade at Bat- 
tle Creek, and Edward D., of DesMoines, la. 
Mr. Austin is a Royal Arch Mason and a 
member of Battle Creek Commandery, 
Knights Templar. His religious connections 
are Independent Congregational. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



309 




FRANCIS HENRY DODDS. 



DODDS, FRATsTCIS IIEKRY. Francis 
Henrv Dodds, of Mt. Pleasant, Isabella 
county, Michigan, was born in St. Lawrence 
county. State of New York, on the 9th day of 
June, 1858. His early education was received 
in the district schools and in the village school 
of Shepherd, Michigan, to which place his 
parents removed, in the year 1866. At the 
age of sixteen years he began teaching school, 
in which profession he continued for the period 
of four years; first, in the district schools of 
Isabella county, next in the village schools of 
Mt. Pleasant, and finally, as principal of the 
village schools at Farwell, in Clare county. 

In 1878 he commenced reading law in the 
office of Edmund Hall, at Detroit, and in the 
fall of the same year entered the Law Depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan, and grad- 
uated therefrom in the spring of 1880, at 
which time he was elected president of the 
Law Alumni of that institution for the then 
ensuing year. Continuing his literary studies 
at Olivet College, Michigan, he graduated 
from that institution in 1882. 



Entering into partnership with his brother 
— now Judge Peter F. Dodds — at Mt. Pleas- 
ant, he pursued the practice of law there until 
1884, when he removed to Bay City, where 
he continued in practice imtil 1887, at which 
time he returned to Mt. Pleasant, and again 
formed a partnership with his brother, and 
this business relation was kept up until the 
election of his brother to the bench in 1893. 
Mr. Dodds has continued in the business of his 
profession, at Mt. Pleasant, since then, has 
built up a large practice, and is considered one 
of the leading lawyers in that part of the State. 

In 1892 he Avas married to Miss Hattie A. 
Cole, daughter of Oscar M. Cole, at Alpena, 
Michigan. 

Mr. Dodds is a Royal Arch Mason, an Odd- 
fellow and a member of the Knights of 
Pythias. He has always been strongly identi- 
fied with the Republican party, and is at pres- 
ent chairman of the Republican Ootmty Com- 
mittee of his county. He is prominently men- 
tioned as a candidate f or congressionistl honors 
from the Eleventh Congressional Distmt^ tHe 
present year. 



wm'^ 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 




GEORGE L. YAPLE. 

YAPLE, GEOEGE L. In the county of 
St. Joseph is a little village of 700 to 800 in- 
habitants, called Mendon. Possibly the village 
would never been much heard of, but for a 
circumstance or two. Firstly, there was born 
there, in 1851, a boy baby that has since borne 
the name of George L. Yaple. Secondly, he 
grew to manhood with a marked personality 
and an intellectual vigor that gave him prom- 
inence, and thirdly, he was a candidate for 
Congress in the year 1882 against Julius C. 
Burrows, and the latter, confident of his own 
election, and looking somew^hat lightly upon 
Mr. Yaple^s candidacy, derisively spoke of him 
as "the boy from Mendon." Mendon thus be- 
came famous and the boy from Mendon has 
since added to its fame as well as his own. And 
at the time referred to, the joke reacted upon 
Mr. Burrows, who was himself beateri by ''the 
boy from Mendon. '^ 

Mr. Yaple's higher education was received 
at the Northwestern University at Evanston, 
111. He studied law and was admitted to the 
bar when twenty-one years of age. Instead 
of rushing to some large city as a candidate for 



practice, he seems to have preferred his native 
village and friends and associations with which 
he had been familiar. He has been a student, 
not of law alone, but of social, economic and 
moral questions as well. A study of the lead- 
ing writers on political economy made him a 
free trader. Similar studies inclined him to 
the so-called Greenback theory of currency. 

Mr. Yaple's aptness for the forum early 
developed itself. He was on the stump for 
the Democratic ticket in 1868, when only 
seventeen years old. He first became prom- 
inent in State politics in 1880, when he was a 
candidate for Congress on the Greenback 
ticket. Two years later, the joint support of 
the Democrats and Greenbacks landed him in 
Congress against Mr. Burrows, as before 
stated. Mr. Yaple, within a few months, while 
in Congress, became famous the country over 
as one of the most eloquent and brilliant speak- 
ers upon the subject of tariff reform (from the 
Democratic point of view), ever heard in Con- 
gress. He has since been two or three times 
a candidate for Congress, though unsuccess- 
ful, while running largely ahead of his ticket. 
In 1886 he was the Democratic-Greenback 
candidate for Governor, but the odds were 
hopelessly against him, although making a 
brilliant and tireless campaign. In 1883 he 
was elected judge of the Fifteenth Judicial 
Circuit and re-elected in 1899. He still lives 
at Mendon, the head of a family of a wife and 
seven children, forming an ideal home center. 
Published sketches during his political cam- 
paigns imply that the wife and mother (for- 
merly Miss Mary E. Hawkinson, of Eockf ord, 
111., to whom Judge Yaple was married Janu- 
ary 1st, 1873) is not a little responsible for the 
elegance of the home life, if not to some extent 
for Judge Yaple's brilliant career. Judge 
Yaple's parents were Elisha L. and Delila 
(Eddy) Yaple. Judge Yaple is a Mason 
(Knights Templar), and a member of the 
Sigma Chi, ,and has the usual Collegiate de- 
grees. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



311 



REIT), EDWY CAMPBELL. Mr. Eeid 
is a Adgorous representative of Michigan jour- 
nalism. Although born in Brantford, Ont., 
Feb. 12, 1852, he is practically a Michigan 
boy, his parents having removed to Kalamazoo, 
Mich., when he was but eighteen months old, 
subsequently removing to Otsego, Allegan 
county. The Reids had lived in New Jersey 
for several generations, where the elder Reid 
was born, but removing to Brantford. The 
mother of Edwy C. Avas Martha A. Long, a 
native of Xorf olkshire, England. Edwy C. is 
a resident of Allegan, and editor and propri- 
etor of the Allegan Gazette, which he estab- 
lished in IS 82. Having the usual advantages 
of the local schools at Otsego until sixteen 
years of age, the young man began his active 
career in life as an apprentice in the office of 
the Otsego Herald. He served two years at 
$3 per week. Later, while at Otsego, in com- 
pany with H. E. eT. Clute, he published the 
Otsego Record, a small local weekly, for eight 
months. In 1870 he w^ent to work in a job 
printing office at Kalamazoo, piecing out his 
small income by setting type evenings, on the 
Kalamazoo Telegraph. In 1871 he was fore- 
man of the composing room of the Kalamazoo 
Gazette. Going to Allegan in 1871 he became 
foreman in the office of the Allegan Democrat, 
serving in that capacity for six months, lie 
became foreman of the Allegan Journal, the 
Republican paper, April 1, 1872, and in 
August, 1874, on the strength of some bor- 
rowed money, he bought a one-third interest 
in the paper. The firm then became Hender- 
son & Reid and went on with comparative 
smoothness until April 1st, 1882, when he and 
Henderson differed as to the policy of the 
paper. That night Henderson converted the 
type in the office into what is technically 
known as ^^pi," and the next day, Reid, with 
but $4.50 in his pocket started the Allegan 
Gazette. The paper was at first printed in an 
outside office, but friends of Reid came to his 
aid and in a month he had a new office 
equipped, and today the Gazette has a circu- 
lation of 3,000 copies weekly. 

Mr. Reid is the present postmaster at Alle- 




EDWY CAMPBELL REID. 

gan, to which position he was appointed in 
J une, 1898. His personal fitness, his integrity 
and party fealty (Republican) are sufficiently 
guaranteed by his appointment to this respon- 
sible trust. He was appointed a member of 
the Board of Trustees of the State Asylum for 
the insane at Ionia in 1893 and was re- 
appointed for the full six-year term in 1895, 
having during his first term acted as president 
of the board. His re-appointment is a flatter- 
ing testimonial of his faithful administration 
of the office. Mr. Reid w^as for twelve years 
secretary of the State Plorticultural Society, 
and for many years he has devoted from one 
to two pages of his paper each week to hortietd- 
tural interests, which has been largely influen- 
tial in developing the fruit growing industry in 
the widely known fruit belt on the w^tem 
coast of Michigan. Mr. Reid has been a mem- 
ber of the Congregational Church for twenty 
years past. His lodge connections are Odd- 
fellows, Foresters, Maccabees and United 
Workmen. He has been a member of the 
Executive Committee of the Republican Press 
Association. His family consists of his wif e^ 
formerly Miss M. Adah Borradaile, of Sodm^ 
NT. Y., to whom he was married in 1876, and 
two children, a son and a daughter. 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




ETHEL M. ALLEN. 



ALLEN, ETHEL M. Ethel M. Allen, of 
Portland, Michigan, was born in Williamson, 
New York State, November 18, 1840. His 
early life was spent on his father's farm and 
he became well acquainted with the drudgery 
it implies. He obtained the first rudiments of 
an education in the schools of the district, and 
when 15 years of age attended Marion Col- 
legiate Institute, paying for his education by 
doing odd jobs around the town and caring for 
the school buildings. He boarded himself 
and managed to remain at the institute until 
1861, teaching during vacations and part of 
the time taking classes in the institute. 

When the Civil War broke out, Mr. Allen 
enlisted October 15, 1861, in the Ninety- 
eighth Volunteer Infantry, with which regi- 
ment he served until disabled by woi;inds re- 
ceived on Chapin's Farm, September 29, 
1864, at the capture of Fort Harrison. He 
was advanced rapidly from the rank^, being 
promoted successively to second lieutenant, 
first lieutenant and captain, succeeding to the 
command of the company in which he first en- 
listed. The Ninety-eighth served through the 
Peninsular campaign under Gen. McOlellan, 
and with Gen. Grant in 1864. It particij)ated 



in all the fierce engagements about Eichmond, 
and was one of the first regiments to enter the 
Confederate capital, April 4, 1865, five days 
before Gen. Lee surrendered at Appomatox 
Court House. 

The exciting incidents of the war were ex- 
changed for the quiet life of a farmer. Upon 
leaving the army Mr. Allen returned to his 
home and followed that peaceful vocation for 
a period of six years. He was made commis- 
sioner of schools in his district in New York 
state, and held that office for two terms of 
three years each, from 1866 until 1872. In 
1874 he came to Michigan determined to 
make a try for fortune in the west. He lo- 
cated in Portland, where he still resides, and 
after being there a short time entered the 
banking house of Maynard & Allen in the 
capacity of cashier, and he has held that posi- 
tion with the same firm ever since. 

Mr. Allen is an ardent and enthusiastic 
Republican and fully committed to the prin- 
ciples of that party. He works hard for his 
party in the various campaigns, contributing 
with both voice and pen toward the success of 
his ticket. He is a man of quick wit, keen dis- 
cernment and endowed with all those charac- 
teristics that make a successful man. 

In matters pertaining to the Grand Army, 
of the Kepublic, Mr. Allen has always taken a 
deep and active interest, working in behalf of 
his comrades and doing all in his power to fur- 
ther the interests of the G. A. E. in this state. 
He is a charter member of the John McGarry 
Post. 

As an ex-instructor in the public schools he 
is well fitted for the position he occupies as 
trustee of the Portland High School, and he 
has acted as such for the past twenty years. 

He married in Williamson, New York, 
November 29th, 1863, Miss Anne C, daugh- 
ter of Kobert and Electa Smith, of that place, 
and has three children : Mrs. A. V. Bell, of 
Seattle, Wash., Gertrude M. and Clifton M. 
The two latter are unmarried and live at home. 
Mr. Allen is now supervisor of the United 
States census for the Fifth District of Michi- 
gan. He is a member of the M. E. church. 
He has recently become affiliated with the 
Loyal Legion. On June 8th, 1900, Mr. Allen 
was elected Department Commander of the 
Grand Army of the Eepublic of Michigan. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



813 



WILLIAMS, RT. REV. GERSHOM 
MOTT. Episcopal Bishop of Marquette, Rt. 
Rev. Gershom Mott Williams is the grandson 
of John R. Williams, the first mayor of the 
city of Detroit, and five times re-elected to that 
office. He was president of the Constitutional 
Convention of Assent which admitted Michi- 
gan as a state to the union, and also organized 
the militia of Michigan, being the first Major- 
General of this state. His son, Brigadier- 
General Thomas Williams, U. S. V. (Major 
4th U. S. Artillery) of the Second Brigade of 
the Army of the G ulf , who was killed at Baton 
Rouge, Louisiana, August 5th, 1862, was 
Bishop^ Williams' father. On Bishop Wil- 
liams' mother's side, the family traces to the 
old Jfew England family of Bailey, the 
mother's maiden name being Mary N. Bailey. 
Bishop Williams was born at Fort Hamilton, 
New York, February 1 1th, 1857. He attended 
a private school at ISTewburg, N. Y., until 
1866, and then the public schools, graduating 
from the Free Academy at I^ewburg in 1871. 
Later he attended a classical school under 
Hugh S. Banks. He earned his first money 
when he was sixteen years of age, as a time- 
keeper in the foundry of Whitehill, Smith & 
Hampson. In December, 1874, he went to 
Europe and returning in the spring of 1875 
became bookkeeper in an agricultural manu- 
facturing business at Newburg. The company 
failing, the ensuing fall Mr. Williams won a 
competitive examination scholarship at Cor- 
nell University, of which he availed himself, 
taking a two-years course at that University. 
In 1877 he removed to Detroit, to look after 
his father's estate, entered the law oflfice of 
Robert P. Toms, and was admitted to the bar 
December 29th, 1879. He then commenced 
to study for the ministry and was ordained at 
St. John's Church, Detroit, December 26th, 
1880, and immediately became curate to Rev- 
erend George Worthington, now Bishop of 
Nebraska. While in Detroit he developed the 




RT. REV. GERSHOM WILLIAMS. 

St. Matthew's Colored Church and in conjunc- 
tion, with this held, for two years, the Church 
of the Messiah at Hamtramck, Mich., and 
afterwards St. George's Church, Detroit, imtil 
the spring of 1889. He had been ordained a 
priest in 1882. Mr. Williams resigned St. 
George's Church and took charge of the Cathe- 
dral at Buffalo, 'N. Y., and in the fall of 1889 
became Dean of AH Saints' Cathedral, at Mil- 
waukee, Wis. In October, 1891, Rev. Mr. 
Williams became Arch-Deacon of the North- 
ern Peninsula of Michigan, with residence at 
Marquette. He continued in charge of 'the 
work of the church in this section, as deputy 
of the Bishop of Michigan, until he was raised 
to the Episcopate on May 1st, 1896, at Grace 
Church, Detroit. In 1879, Eliza Bradish 
Biddle became Mrs. Williams. She is the 
daughter of W. S. Biddle of Grosse Ile^ Michi- 
gan, and grand-daughter of the late Major 
John Biddle of Detroit. Bishop Williams has 
seven children, Susan D.,* Thomas Victor, 
Dayton Ogden, Cecil H., Bhoda, tTohn B. and 
Mary Josepha Williams. 



iK 



MEN OF PROGEESS. 




JOHN ALEXANDER 8IBBALD. 

SIBBALD,eTOHN ALEXANDER Mr. 
Sibbald is of Scotch parentage, his father and 
mother, Thomas and Anne (Dickson) Sibbald, 
being from Roxburyshire in Scotland, coming 
to Michigan in 1838, John A. having been 
born March 29, 1836, in New York City, dur- 
ing ft temporary stay of his parents there. His 
first school years Avere passed in a country dis- 
trict school near Jonesville. This was fol- 
lowed by a couple of years in school at Albany, 
N. Y., and a further attendance at the Jones- 
ville Union school during the years 1848-51. 
When sixteen years old he took a position as 
clerk and copyist in the office of the Registei 
of Deeds at Hillsdale, a work of no little re- 
sponsibility for a youth of that age. Remain- 
ing there six months, he then entered the em- 
ploy of R. S. Varnum, a druggist and also a 
postmaster, at Jonesville, as clerk. Two years 
passed here was followed by a like term as 
bookkeeper in the general store of E. O. Gros- 
venor. His established character then ad- 
vanced him to the position of confidential clerk 
in Mr. Grosvenor's bank, which position he 
filled for seven years. In 1863 a co-partner- 
I was formed by Mr. Grosvenor, E. B. An- 



drews and himself, under the firm name of E. 
O. Grosvenor & Co., as dealers in general 
merchandise. This partnership continued for 
seven years, when Mr. Andrews withdrew on 
account of ill health, Mr. Grosvenor and him- 
self continuing the business four years longer, 
when C. L. Spaulding was admitted a member 
of the firm, which then took the style of Sib- 
bald, Spaulding & Co. Mr. Spaulding with- 
drew in 1870, the business being then con- 
tinued under the style of J. A. Sibbald & Co.^ 
Mr. Grosvenor being the silent partner. In 
1897, Frank E. Guy took Mr. Grosvenor's 
place in the firm, under the same firm name. 
Mr. G. was special partner in the business from 
1863 to 1870 and general partner from 1870 
to 1897. 

It will thus be seen that Mr. Sibbald has 
spent practically his entire life, at the ripe age 
of sixty-four, in Jonesville, and has been in 
active business either as employe or principal, 
since he was sixteen years of age, a period of 
nearly fifty years. His official career is meas- 
ured only by several years' service as a trus- 
tee of the village and one year as its presi- 
dent, he having been given more to business 
than to politics. He is largely identified with 
the material interests of elonesville and is also 
interested in Trinidad, Colorado, real estate, 
Trinidad being a coal mining town in Color- 
ado. He was also very active in securing the 
extension of the old Fort Wayne, Jackson & 
SaginaAV railroad to Jonesville in 1869, and 
lias been a stockholder and director in and 
vice-president of the Grosvenor Savings Bank. 
He was efficient in building the First Presby- 
terian church edifice in Jonesville, was for 
years a trustee and treasurer of the society, 
and is still one of the elders of the church. Mr. 
Sibbald has been twice married. Miss Cynthia 
M. Wales, daughter of Lewis Wales of Jones- 
ville, became Mrs. Sibbald in 1859 and died in 
1872. His second marriage was in 1877 to 
Mrs. Martha Boynton, nee Hill, daughter of 
Hezekiah Hill, of Wayne county, N. Y. He 
has two daughters and a son, Maggie L., wife 
of C. V. Turner, of Trinidad, Colorado, Lewis 
W., a clerk with his father, and Anne, at homie. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



315 



PEINGLE, EUGENE. A professional 
career of fifty years in Michigan will cer- 
tainly entitle Mr. Pringle to rank as one of 
the older members of the legal profession in 
the State. His paternal ancestry was Scotch, 
the first American representative of the fam- 
ily having settled in 'New London, Conn., in 
1689. His father and mother. Homer and 
Harriet (Hatch) Pringle, were residents of 
Richfield, Otsego County, N. Y., where 
Eugene Pringle was born December 1, 1826. 
The father's culture cast its light upon the 
son, whose primary school training was sup- 
plemented by a three years' course at the 
Mayville (Chautauqua County) academy, the 
parents having removed to that county in 
1828. He was engaged a portion of the time 
during the winter months in teaching, and 
soon after reaching the age of eighteen, he 
began the study of law at Batavia and was 
admitted to the bar in 1849. He located in 
Jackson, this state, in December, 1850. Dur- 
ing the 1850 decade he held co-partnership 
relations successively with Samuel H. Kim- 
ball, John C. Fitzgerald and Edward Pom- 
eroy. From April, 1861, he was alone in prac- 
tice until September, 1894, when he became 
associated with his present partner, A. E. 
Hewett. 

Aside from a successful professional career 
Mr. Pringle has made a popular history 
equalled by but few men in the state. His 
agency in promoting the business prosperity 
of Jackson, is especially noteworthy. The 
Grand River Valley, the Jackson & Fort 
Wayne, and the Michigan Air Line railroads 
were Jackson enterprises, of which Mr. Prin- 
gle was largely the propelling force, in the 
way of personal interviews, addresses at pub- 
lic meetings and newspaper articles prepared 
by him. 

Mr. Pringle's public service has given him 
a state reputation. In 1852, he was elected 
circuit court commissioner for Jackson 
County. In 1853 and again in 1854 he was 
elected village recorder, and in 1856 and 
again in 1858 prosecuting attorney, and was 
city attorney of Jackson, 1859-60. In 1860 
he was elected a representative in the State 
Legislature. During the administration of 
Governor Blair, he filled the responsible and 
exacting position of military secretary to the 
governor. In 1866 he was elected to the 




EUQEt^E PRINGLE. 

State Senate, and not being politically 
friendly to Senator Chandler, he was pur- 
posely omitted from the more important com- 
mittees, leaving him a greater freedom of 
action, and he prides himself on having been 
able to accomplish more on that account. In 
1867 he was elected a member of the consti- 
tutional convention of that year. Mr. Prin- 
gle's early political leanings were Democratic, 
but he became a Republican in the political 
crisis of the 1850 decade. In 1872, however, 
he joined in the so-called independent move- 
ment and has since acted with the Democrats. 
He was United States register of bankruptcy, 
1867-78, was a member of the board of pub- 
lic works in Jackson, 1871-76, and state com- 
missioner of insurance, 1883-85. He was 
elected mayor of Jackson in 1885 and prose- 
cuting attorney in 1886, being the only Demo- 
crat elected in the county. He was candidate 
for Congress in 1880 and again in 1888, can- 
didate for circuit judge in 1881 and for lieu- 
tenant-governor in 1882, but fell under 
adverse majorities, though leading his ticket 
in each case. He sided with the so-called gold 
wing of the party in 1896. 

Mr. Pringle's religious connection is Epis- 
copalian. Miss Frances A. Becker, daughter 
of Abraham Becker, of Ann Arbor, became 
Mrs. Pringle in 1855. They have two daugh- 
ters, Jessie, widow of Milton Harmon, of 
Jackson, and Fannie, at home. 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




HON. JAMES MACNAUGHTON. 

MAC N AUGHTOIs^, HOK JAMES. 
Archibald Macj^aughton, father of the sub- 
ject of this sketch, came to this country from 
the Highlands of Scotland in 1854. The Mac- 
i^aughtons were farmers, and lived for genera- 
tions in Perchshire, Scotland. James Mac- 
Naughton was born March 9th, 1864, at the 
Bruce mines in the Province of Ontario. In 
the following June the familj^ moved to Han- 
cock, Michigan, and from there in 1867 they 
moved to Lake Linden. Here the boy grew up 
and was sent to the public schools. 

After he was eleven years of age he worked 
during his summer vacations as a water-boy at 
the Calumet & Hecla coal docks, receiving one 
dollar per day for his services. At the age of 
sixteen he left school, and became k switch- 
tender on the railroad operated by the Calumet 
ife Hecla Company. In about a year thereafter 
he began operating a stationary engine on the 
gra^dty road at the stamp mills of the same 
compsthy, receiving for his services two dollars 



per day. The railroad at that time was not 
built down to the stamp mills, and a gravity 
road was used to lower the trains of loaded cars 
down to the mills. When nineteen years of 
age it was decided to send him to Oberlin Col- 
lege, at Oberlin, Ohio, where he studied for 
one year. In the fall of 1884 he entered the 
University of Michigan, taking a course in 
engineering, until June, 1886. He then 
accepted a position in the mining engineer's 
office of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., 
where he did surveying and draughting until 
February, 1889, when he resigned to accept 
the position of mining engineer at the Chapin 
mine at Iron Mountain, Mich. In May, 1890, 
he was made Assistant Superintendent, and in 
March, 1892, was given the position he now 
occupies, that of General Manager. 

Mr. MacN^aughton has been a supervisor of 
Dickinson county ever since that county was 
organized, and was for one year chairman of 
the Board of Supervisors. He was appointed 
in 1895 by Governor Eich as a member of the 
Board of Control of the Upper Peninsula 
Prison, at Marquette, Mich., and held the 
office until 1899. He is also the president of 
the Board of Public Works at Iron Mountain, 
and was a delegate to the Republican conven- 
tion held in St. Louis in 1896. At the State 
Republican convention held in Detroit in 
April, 1900, he was nominated as a presidential 
elector. 

Besides being general manager of the Cha- 
pin mine, Mr. MacXaughton is also manager 
of the Winthrop mine at Ishpeming, Michi- 
gan, both of which are owned by the Il^ational 
Steel Co. 

llr. MacJTaughton married in 1892 Mary 
E. Morrison, daughter of John S. Morrison, 
of Calumet, Michigan. He has one child, 
Martha Lois MacNaughton. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



Wl 



WINANS, GEOEGE G. Among the early 
emigrants to California, after the gold discov- 
ery there, was a young man named Edwin B. 
Winans. lie was a Michigan man and made 
the overland journey in 1850. His business 
there was at first placer mining, but in 1856 
he engaged in banking in the town of Rough 
and Ready. He found time to take a wife 
during the interval, in the person of Elizabeth 
Galloway, whose parents, of Scotch descent, 
were pioneers of Livingstone county, Mich. 
Of this parentage George G. was born at the 
California town July 20th, 1856. Further as 
to the father's history, he returned to Michi- 
gan in 1858 and settled on a farm of 400 acres 
in the town of Hamburg, Livingstone county. 
The confidence of his fellow citizens was mani- 
fested in his election to the Legislature, to the 
Constitutional Convention of 1867, to the 
ofhce of Judge of Probate and to two terms in 
Congress, 1882 and '84. In 1890 he was 
elected Governor of the state, his politics hav- 
ing been uniformly Democratic. 

George G. Winans, with the average pri- 
mary and graded school training, at the age of 
seventeen entered Deveaux College at Niagara 
Falls, taking a preparatory course designed to 
fit him for admission as a cadet at the West 
Point Military Academy. The impairment 
of his teeth, however, resulting from a severe 
illness, unfitted him to pass the requisite physi- 
cal examination and his proposed military edu- 
cation was necessarily abandoned. He became 
collection clerk in a bank at Howell (1875) 
and retired as teller, after five years of service. 
He then engaged in the crockery business at 
Howell, for two years, when he sold out and 
removed to Denver, Col., where he was en- 
gaged successfully for a year as a partner in a 
commission house. Returning to Michigan in 
1883, he was engaged for the next two years 
as traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery 
firm in Detroit. In 1885 he accepted a posi- 
tion in the mail service, as mail clerk between 
Detroit and Grand Rapids, but was relieved 
in 1889 by the then Republican (Harrison) 
administration. He then went to Guthrie, 
Oklahoma Territory, when the public lands 




GEORGE G. WINANS. 

were thrown open for settlement, and took a 
hand is starting the first newspaper in the terri- 
tory, the Oklahoma State Journal, in which 
he had a one-third interest. He sold out his 
interest during the year, for three times its 
cost value, and became the representative in 
the west and south of the extensive line of 
silver-plated ware manufactured by Rogers 
Brothers of Waterbury, Conn. When his 
father was elected governor he threw up his 
position with the last named company, to be- 
come his private secretary. This position in- 
volving also the duties of military . secretary, 
carried with it the rank of Major. Maj. 
Winans took up his residence at Hamburg in 
1895, where his occupation has since been that 
of a farmer. He has been tendered nomina- 
tions for official position a number of times 
by his party (the Democratic) but has uni- 
formly declined. He is a member of the Ma- 
sonic Fraternity, of the Odd Fellows and of 
the Knights of the Loyal Guard. 

Miss Catherine Valentine, daughter of Al- 
fred Valentine, of Webster township, Wash- 
tenaw county, became Mrs. Winans in 1889. 
They have one son, Edwin, at school in Hftm^ 
burg. 



MJiiiN ut rxtuuni!.oo. 




HUTSON ^BENEDICT COLMAN. 

COLMAN, HUTSON BENEDICT. Fran- 
cis Colman, father of H. B., was of English 
extraction. His grandfather, Martin C, was 
a Baptist minister in western New York. His 
motlier, Mary Benedict, was from an old Con- 
necticut family. The father came from 
Brockport, N. Y., in 1837, settling near Koch- 
ester, in Oakland county, where H. B. was 
bom, June 8th, 1855. In 1866, the family 
removed to Kalamazoo. With a preliminary 
training in the public schools, young Colman, 
at the age of thirteen, began a preparatory 
course for Kalamazoo College, from which he 
graduated in 1877. Before graduation he 
passed a year as tutor in the college; followed 
by a year as superintendent of schools at 
Hastings, after finishing his college course. In 
the summer of 1878 he visited Paris, and re- 
corded his observations and impressions, in a 
series of newspaper articles. This was fol- 
lowed by two years as principal of th^ Kalama- 
zoo High School, to which he declined a re- 
appointment in 1884, desiring to engage in 
active business. He became associated with 
C. H. Bird in the manufacture of windmiHs, 
and has since been connected with different 
manufacturing enterprises that have served to 
make Kalamazoo a manufacturing center. 



Mr. Colman's early life was spent between 
farm chores and the district school. His father 
was one of a few Republicans in the midst of 
a strong Democratic community, and he often 
refers to early impressions which he received 
from the discussions which he heard in those 
days. In* college he distinguished himself as 
a scholar and a public speaker. In an inter- 
collegiate oratorical contest in which most of 
the denominational colleges of the State par- 
ticipated he represented Kalamazoo College, 
and carried off first honors. While always an 
active business man, he has never lost his love 
for the literary and intellectual. Eeading and 
study have been his main pastimes. One of his 
cardinal principles is that it is the duty of every 
man to give attention to public affairs and to 
carefully guard the commonweal; therefore 
when asked to take the nomination for alder- 
he consented, and being elected, he 



man, 



spared no time or labor in his efforts to protect 
the interests of the city and to secure a high 
order of government. In 1896 Mr. Colman 
was elected Senator to represent the Ninth Dis- 
trict in the State Legislature. He was recog- 
nized as a prominent and influential member 
of that body and his work was heartily ap- 
proved by his constituency. The demands of 
his private business forced him to decline a 
second nomination to that office. When the 
death of Hon. James Munroe made a vacancy 
in the Kalamazoo postoffice, the appointment 
of Mr. Colman as postmaster gave universal 
satisfaction. Mr. Colman's thorough business 
habits and his long experience with men, have 
eminently fitted him for such a position. In 
1892 he organized the Home Savings Bank 
and was its president for four years, and is still 
a director. He is also a director in several in- 
dustrial enterprises at Kalamazoo, and a stock- 
holder in the Borden Paper Company at 
Otsego. He is a trustee in the Kalamazoo Col- 
lege and a director in the Y. M. C. A. His 
society connections are Masonic, including 
Peninsular Commandery, K. T., at Kalama- 
zoo, and DeW^itt Clinton Consistory of Grand 
Rapids. It is perhaps needless to add that he 
is a Republican in politics. 

Mr. Colman has been twice married. His 
first wife was Miss Fannie Z. Lowell, daughter 
of Dr. L. W. Lowell of Climax, to whom he 
was married in 1883, and who died in Decem- 
ber, 1884. In September, 1897, Miss Cath- 
erine Fletcher, daughter of Calvin Fletcher, 
of South Haven, became Mrs. Colman. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



810 



BURTLESS, WILLIAM EARLY, M. D. 
"Per Aspera ad Astra^' is a motto that Wil- 
liam Early Burtless^ M. D., may fittingly 
choose, for he has made his way to his pres- 
ent position in life through difficulties that 
would have discouraged a less persevering 
man very early in the struggle. 

He was born in Liberty, Jackson County, 
Michigan, June 22, 1847. His family came 
originally from Central New York State, his 
grandfather, William Burtless, having been 
a farmer in Seneca County, New York, for 
many years. 

Dr. Burtless' early life was not a partic- 
ularly happy one. His mother died when he 
was but eight years of age, and his father, 
James Burtless, married again a year later. 
After this the home was none too pleasant for 
the lad, so when only nine years old he left 
the uncongenial atmosphere and started out 
as a farmer's boy. 

He worked in the fields and did the gen- 
eral work that falls to a boy aroimd a farm 
until 1863, shortly after the breaking out of 
the Civil War. Farm work had given him a 
rugged physique, and he was unusually tall 
for a boy of sixteen, so he easily passed mus- 
ter and enlisted in Company M, Eleventh 
Michigan Cavalry. 

He saw service in Virginia during the tur- 
bid times that followed, and at the battle of 
Saltville, in that State, was wounded and 
taken prisoner by the Confederates who sent 
him, with a batch of other prisoners, to Rich- 
mond. October 2, 1864, found him in Libby 
prison, where he remained a guest of the Con- 
federacy for six weeks, when he was paroled 
November 16, 1864. 

Upon the expiration of his service he 
returned to Tecumseh, Michigan, where he 
sought and found employment as a collector in 
the employ of local physicians and merchants. 
From 1872 to 1875 he did a small trade in 
the lumber and mercantile business at Auburn, 
Michigan, the results of which eventually 
enabled him to finish his medical education. 

After one year spent in the Baptist College 
at Kalamazoo, Mich., he entereni the literary 




WILLIAM EARLY BURTLESS. M. D. 

department of the University of Michigan. 
In 1875 he commenced his medical studies at 
that college, graduating in 1878. 

In 1883 his health, which had been failing 
for some time, broke down altogether, and 
he was compelled to relinquish his growing 
practice and seek some health resort in order 
to recuperate. He went to St. Clair, Mich., 
to take the mineral baths for which that city 
is noted, and finding the town and its people 
congenial to him he decided to locate and 
make it his future home. Dr. Burtless was 
made house physician of the Oakland Hotel, 
St. Clair, in which position he remained for 
five years. At the end of that time he left the 
hotel and started an independent practice. 
Today he is one of the representative physi- 
cians of St. Clair. 

During the year 1892 he occupied the post 
of City Physician of that city. 

Dr. Burtless married Miss Emma C. Blod- 
gett, at Midland, Michigan, June 22, 1&77- 
They have one child, Alice May Burtleas, 
age three years. Dr. Burtless is a member isi 
St. Clair Lodge, F. & A. M., and also odf Part 
Huron Commandery, K. T. 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




THOMAS HAWLEY CHRISTIAN. 

CHEISTIAN, THOMAS HAWLEY. 
Thomas Hawley (Jhristian was born in De- 
troit, June 3, 1856, and educated in the 
Wyandotte High School. When he was a 
young man he expressed a desire to follow the 
calling of a druggist, but his father, Dr. Ed- 
mond P. Christian, endeavored to persuade 
him to follow in the same course he himself 
had taken, attend the University of Michigan 
and graduate as a physician. Young Chris- 
tian had selected the line of work which he 
thought most congenial to him and one day 
he informed his parents that he had accepted 
a position in the laboratory of the Wyandotte 
Silver Smelting Works. This position he 
secured through the interest he had awakened 
in Prof. W. M. Courtis, then in charge of that 
department, who, learning of the boy's desire 
to become a druggist, offered to farther it. 
Here, ^vorking for six dollars a week, the 
young man, under the personal supervision of 
Prof. Courtis, learned the work of an assayer. 
He continued as an assistant for two years and 
then resignod the position, which was paying 
him a salary of ten dollars a week, to work 



for three dollars in the pharmaceutical labor- 
atory of Farrand, Williams & Co., of Detroit. 

For two years he worked and studied, until 
at the expiration of that period he found him- 
self in a position to follow the calling he had 
determined upon in early life. 

He left the firm to start in business on his 
own accoimt, and opened a drug store in the 
then thriving little lumber tow^n of Farwell, 
Mich. He carried on this business most suc- 
cessfully for four years, returning to Detroit 
in 1884 and entering the pharmaceutical lab- 
oratory of John J. Dodd & Co., with whom 
he continued for two years. 

The next two years of his life were spent as 
a traveling salesman, selling oil for the firm of 
Perrin & Snow, of Detroit. He then engaged 
in the same line of business with the J. W. 
Fawsett Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, but 
quit on account of the long trips assigned to 
him. From 1886 to 1888 he held the posi- 
tion of assistant bookkeeper for the Eureka 
Iron & Steel Works of Wyandotte, after 
which he was made teller and bookkeeper of 
the Wyandotte Savings Bank, where he re- 
mained until a severe attack of typhoid fever 
forced him to give up the position. 

Mr. Christian's illness lasted for several 
months. When he was at last able to go to 
work again he went with the firm of J. H. 
Bishop & Company. In 1893 he was appoint- 
ed Deputy Sheriff of Wayne County, and the 
following year Deputy County Clerk. He 
was one of the three County Auditors elected 
in Wayne County in 1897 and he fills that 
position most ably at the present day. He is 
a stockholder in the First Commercial and 
Savings Bank of Wyandotte, and also in the 
Wyandotte Savings Bank. Mr. Christian is 
a Mason, a member of Wyandotte Lodge, F. 
and A. M., Wyandotte Chapter, E. A. M., 
Monroe Council, E. and S. M., E. B. Ward 
Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Wyandotte Tent, K. 
O. T. M. 

He married, June 10, 1879, Miss Anna M., 
daughte'r of Eev. G. W. Bloodgood, of Wyan- 
dotte. Their two children, M. Evelyn and 
George E., are attending school in Wyandotte. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



821 



MACKENZIE, FREDERICK. Frederick 
Mackenzie, of Calumet, Michigan, proprietor 
and editor of the Copper Country Evening 
News, as well as the weekly edition of the same 
paper, was born in London, England, on the 
27th of October, 1832, his father being the 
celebrated architectural draughtsman of the 
same name, who was associated with Pugin, 
the architect, in illustrating many of the lat- 
ter's works, whose father, again, was a whole- 
sale linen-draper and hosier of London. 

The subject of this sketch was educated at 
the Metropolitan High School with the inten- 
tion of entering government employ. Whilst 
waiting for the promised appointment, he 
took a clerical position, continuing in this 
occupation for several years, as the govern- 
ment changing, the promised appointment did 
not materialize. 

Promise of brighter prospects led him to 
America. Upon his arrival he went to Chi- 
cago and was there persuaded by a brother of 
the novelist, Charles Dickens, to purchase 
some land in Champaign county. 111. which 
he did, with a gentleman he had met on the 
ocean. Farming not being a very pleasant 
occupation for one brought up in a large city, 
he came to the Lakes, another object being 
to get rid of the ague, with which he had been 
seized while on i;he prairie. He landed at 
Eagle Harbor in the fall of 1^65 ^'busted,'' 
without a friend and shaking with the ague. 
Nothing daunted, he applied to the late Sam- 
uel W. Hill, then agent for the Pennsylvania 
mine, and was given employment on the sur- 
face. He stuck to it until the break-up in the 
spring, when the mine closed down, and he 
made his way to Hancock, where, after some 
months, he obtained employment in the hard- 
ware store of 'Holland & Patterson and was 
eventually given charge of their wholesale 
department. Here he met Mr. Thomas W. 
Buzze, who was then supply agent for the 
Calumet Mining Company: 

Having had a dispute with Mr. Holland, 
Mr. Mackenzie resigned his position and was 
immediately engaged by Mr. Buzze as supply 
clerk for the Calumet mine, remaining for 
some eighteen years. 




FREDERICK MACKENZIE. 

Having loaned some money to a Mat Kelly, 
who had started The Calumet News he found 
himself obliged to take the plant to save his 
money. The News was greatly improved 
under the management of Mr. Mackenzie, 
who eventually started ^^The Copper Country 
Evening News," the first daily paper to be 
published in the Copper Country. Mr. Mac- 
kenzie has brought the paper through a sys- 
tem of evolution, until the ofBce generally 
may be favorably compared with any office 
this side of Milwaukee. 

Mr. Mackenzie in politics is a liberal Repub- 
lican ; he has held for upwards of thirty years 
the office of township clerk of Calumet. He is 
a Mason, a member of the Order Sons of St. 
George, a member of the Reform Club of 
New York, of the Chicago Press Club, and a 
charter member of the U. P. Press Association. 

In 1856 Mr. Mackenzie was married to 
Emma Mathilda Banks, of London, Eng.; the 
family consists ol Edith, wife of Col. Si- K. 
Cox, of the C. & H. Mine office; Nellie, wife 
of John B. Curtis, J. P., Calumet; Emma M.j 
widow of the late S. B. Salms of Ohicagoj^ 
Frederick Henry, in charge of his father's 
farm in the Red River Country, Minnesota; 
Clyde S., business manager of the paper^ and 
Riobert B., educated for a dentist, but whid, on 
account of illness, had to give up his ptoimAmi 
and is now looking after the finanoial hs0mt^ 
ment of "The News.'' 



422 



MEN OF PROGEESS. 




HENRY CHAMBERLAIN. 

CIIAMBEELAIX, HENRY. On his 
father's side Mr. Chamberlain traces his an- 
cestry back to his great great-grandfather, 
Jiacob Chamberlain, who was a resident of 
Roxlmry, Mass., born about 1690. Erom him 
sprang SamUel, of Chelsea, Mass., born 1724, 
thence Moses, of Hopkinton, Mass., born 1757, 
and from him the father of Henry, also named 
Moses, of London, IST, H., born 1792. Mr. 
Chamberlain himself having been born at 
Pembroke, N. H., March 17, 1824. On the 
maternal side his genealogy goes back to the 
time of Elizabeth, in the person of Reginald 
Foster, bom in 1595, and who settled in Ips- 
wich, Mass., in H 636, his mother having been 
Mary Foster of Canterbury, 'N. H., born in 
1797, a direct descendant of Reginald. 

Mr. Chamberlain's education was advanced 
from the primary to the academic but at the 
age of twelve he is found as a iclerk in his 
father's store at Concord, IST. H. His father 
removed in 1848 to what is now the township 
of Three Oaks, in Berrien county, where he 
had located some government land in 1836, 
on which to make a farm. Giving his time and 
labor here until 1850, the son then commenced 
opening a farm at what is now Three Oaks 



village, and in 1854 commenced mercantile 
business. This place has since been his home. 
His business status may therefore be described 
as farmer and merchant, while having given 
much attention to public affairs. Year after 
year he served as supervisor and justice of the 
peace of his township. In 1848 he was elected 
to the State Legislature. Being a Democrat 
in politics, his party fell into the minority in 
the political revolution of 1854, and his of- 
ficial service has since been limited. In 1864 
he was a candidate for the State Senate and in 
1867 for the Constitutional Convention of that 
year. He was his party's choice for Congress 
in 1868, 1870 and 1876 and in 1872 and 1896 
for presidential elector. In 1874 he was their 
candidate for governor and was defeated by 
less than 6,000 votes, against 56,000 Repub- 
lican majority, two years previously. In 1885 
Mr. Chamberlain was appointed by Gov. Alger 
a member of the commission in charge of the 
semi-centennial exercises, commemorative of 
the formation of the state government. It was 
a purely harmony appointment and Mr. Cham- 
berlain's counsel contributed very largely to 
the success of the occasion. The public posi- 
tions that Mr. Chamberlain has held and for 
which he has been named, have come to him 
by reason of his fitness, his affability and an 
even temperament that attracts rather than 
repels, and not by his ow^n seeking. 

Mr. Chamberlain has been a prominent 
member of the Masonic fraternity since 1853 
and was Grand Master in 1872. He is a mem- 
ber of the Congregational church, as were his 
ancestors members for some generations back. 
He is believed to be the sole survivor of thoae 
who organized the State Agricultural Society 
in 1849, having been secretary of the meeting 
held for that purpose. He has never held any 
official position in the society but has attended 
most of its fairs and has given much attention 
to its work. He served twelve years as a mem- 
ber of the State Board of Agriculture which 
controls the Agricultural College, 1883-89 
and 1891-97. Mr. Chamberlain's first wife, 
Sarah Jane T^ash, to whom he was married in 

1851, was a native of Indiana, a^d daughter 
of Vincent I^ash of Three Oaks. She died in 

1852, leaving an infant son. Mrs Rebecca 
(Van De Vanter) Ames, a native of Ohio, be- 
came Mrs. Chamberlain in 1866. Two daugh- 
ters and a son are the fruit of this marriage. 



mSTOItlCAL SKETCHES. 



828 



DODGE, HON FEANK LUKE. The 

man who defended and secured the acquittal 
of Hon. Thomas B. Barry, of Saginaw, in the 
great conspiracy case of 1886, when, Barry, 
as chairman of the great executive board of 
the Knights of Labor, during the strike in 
Saginaw, was arrested under the Baker law, 
for conspiracy, Mr. Dodge won for himself a 
national reputation. Mr. Dodge has had a 
good practice, and has prosecuted a large 
number of cases for damages, with excellent 
results. Hon. Frank Luke Dodge was born 
in Oberlin, Ohio, Oct. 22, 1853. He was sent 
to school until he was fifteen years of age, and 
then given employment at a news stand. He 
worked as a newsboy, and later on a train, 
running from Cleveland to Wellsville, Ohio, 
and Pittsburg, Pa. At seventeen he had the 
position of locomotive fireman and later was 
promoted to a similar position on a passenger 
engine, and for a time he ran a yard engine. 
During his work as fireman, he had been 
reading Kent's Commentaries, and preparing 
himself for a course of legal study. Quitting 
the railroad, he engaged in the hotel business, 
at Eaton Kapids, with his brother, Wm. H. 
Dodge; later traveled on the road for a firm 
in Cleveland, Ohio. In two years at this work 
liis savings enabled him to take up the study 
of law, which he commenced in the office of 
Hon. Isaac M. Crane, of Eaton Eapids, one of 
the foremost lawyers and public speakers of 
the state. He was admitted to the bar in 1877, 
before Justice F. A. Hooker, of the Supreme 
Court, then Judge of the Circuit at Charlotte. 
Mr. Crane took him into partnership, and his 
career as an attorney had commenced. While 
with Mr. Crane, he compiled and annotated 
the railroad laws of Michigan. The partner- 
ship continued until 1884, when the senior 
member retired from practice on account of 
ill-health. 

In the celebrated Daken impeachment case 
before the Legislature in 1887, Mr. Dodg^, 
together with eludge Van Zile and Judge 
Holden, appeared for the defendant. Repre- 
sentative Milo H. Daken, but, notwithstand- 
ing their splendid efforts for Daken, he was 
unseated. Mr. Dodge in 1897 was secretary 
of the Democratic State Central Committee, 
and has been for several years chairman of the 
Democratic county committee* He was a 
member of the Legislature from Lansing in 
1882-5, and alderman of the city of Lansing 
since 1891, being now president of the Coun- 
cil. From 1887 to 1898 he was United States 
Commissioner, and is secretary of the Super- 




HON. FRANK LlTfflfG DODGE. 

visors' Association of Michigan, and chairman 
of its Executive and Legislative Committees. 

On the 22nd of "November, 1888, he mar- 
ried Abby, daughter of Hon. James Turner, 
of Lansing. They have four children, Sophie, 
aged 11; Franklin I^., aged 9; Wyllis Osborn, 
aged 7, and Josephine Elizabeth, aged one 
year. Mr. Dodge is a direct descendant of the 
original Massachusetts Dodge family, and 
Nathan Dane, the great jurist and lawyer of 
Massachusetts, was his great uncle. His 
mother was Angeline SteA^ens Dodge, a native 
of I^ew Hampshire. 

Mr. Dodge is a Mason, a member of the 
Knights of Pythias, Uniform Rank; of the 
I. O. O. F. and K. O. T. M. He is attorney, 
secretary and a stockholder of the Lansing, 
St. Johns & St. Ix)uis Railroad Company, 
having devoted much energy to this enterprise. 
He was formerly associated with Hon. James 
M. Turner, at the Springdale Farm, in raising 
blooded horses and cattle. 

Mr. Dodge is greatly attached to Lansing, 
and has ever been loyal to its interests. He 
was regarded by all persons as accomplishitig 
more for Lansing than any other person who 
has represented the district. While he tddk 
much interest in general legislation, as oae of 
the leaders of the minority, he neret lo^ m^%: 
of the interests of his district a^d the Olfe{4ttl 
City; and its people, it is said, are J6i|uiill^ 
mindf lil of him. 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




HON. PETER CHARLES KEDIHER. 

KELIHER, HON. PETEE CHARLES. 
It is not an abuse of the term, "a self-made 
man," to apply it to Peter Charles Keliher, 
for slich he is. His early opportunities were 
, exceedingly limited, and what has since come 
to him in life he has worked hard and earn- 
estly to procure. 

He is of Irish descent, and was born in 
North Adams, Massachusetts, January 11, 
1856. He attended the public school in 
Worcester, Massachusetts, and during his va- 
cations worked in a foundry, making cores. 
His father had married a second time and the 
step-mother did not agree with the boy, so he 
left home, working at various occupations, 
from making shoes to driving a sprinkling 
wagon. He kept up his schooling during the 
winter, and when 19 years of age enlisted in 
the regular army, June 18, 1870. He was as- 
signed to Company B, Tenth Infantiiy, U. S. 
A., and sent with other recruits to Eort Mc- 
Kavett, Texas, which was located 210 miles 
from the railroad and was reached on foot. 
The next year he was sent with a scouting 
party to Fort Clark, 190 miles across the 
country, and while there the troops were sent 
in pursuit of a gang of cattle thieves. In this 



campaign the men suffered extremely, going 
at one time 24 hours mthout water, and nar- 
rowly missing an engagement with the Mexi- 
can troops. He was mustered out June 17, 
1881. He had $156, with which he opened 
a grocery store at Sault Ste. Marie, which 
^was closed up by his creditors, leaving him 
an indebtedness of $1,000 and cash on hand 
of $17.75. He worked with a pick and 
shovel at $40 a month for three months on 
the Soo lock, then went into the fish busi- 
ness, buying and selling fish all that sum- 
mer and later working on the docks load- 
ing freight and checking coal for L. P. 
Trempe at $45 per month. The next spring 
he again embarked in the grocery business, 
buying a store for $625, of which $100 was 
paid in cash. The store did not thrive and 
his backer, W. A. Dennis, failing in the 
spring, Mr. Keliher was forced to mortgage 
his home in order to buy goods. At this time 
he bought on credit 50 barrels of flour and 
did some advertising as a cash-priced store, 
. offering the flour at a low rate. The follow- 
ing day he did $130 worth of business. H. 
T. Tremaine, ihe general manager of the 
Hammond Standish Company, of Detroit, 
then guaranteed his account and sent him 
$4,000 worth of goods, other firms also 
showed confidence in him, and when naviga- 
tion opened in the spring he paid off the 
mortgage, all his debts, including his old 
creditors, with 8 per cent, interest. He built 
his new block in Sault Ste. Marie in 1891-92 
and his warehouse for his wholesale business. 
He was appointed alderman to fill a vacancy 
in. the Democratic city council, in 1895, and 
in 1898-1899 was mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, 
being elected on the Republican ticket. 

February 4, 1880, he married Miss Mary 
A. Gardner, daughter of John J. Gardner, at 
Sault Ste. Marie. They have nine children: 
La^dna, Austin B., Otto C, Hattie, Lester, 
Gertrude, Dorris, Thelma and Helen. Mr. 
Keliher is a Catholic, a member of the Catho- 
lic Mutual Benefit Association and the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of Sault 
Ste. Marie. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



125 



LEISEN, JACOB, Koplands, Germany, 
was the birthplace of Jacob Leisen, president 
of the Leisen & Ilenes Brewing Company of 
Menominee, Michigan. He was born there 
May 7, 1828, and came from sturdy Germap 
stock, his forefathers having been farmers 
and soldiers for generations and his grand- 
father a government forester. The govern- 
ment schools furnished the boy with his edu- 
cation and at ihe age of 15 he was appren- 
ticed with a cabinet-maker and carpenter to 
learn that trade. xVfter two years of this work 
he left his employer and started out to work 
for himself as a journeyman, earning about 
25 cents a day. He then served about four 
years as a volunteer in a sharpshooters' regi- 
ment in the Prussian Army, and after work- 
ing a while at his trade in 1853 he left the old 
country and came to America. 

The voyage w^as not as comfortable as 
steerage passengers enjoy in the big Atlantic 
liners now plying between the two hemi- 
spheres, for Mr. Leisen came over in the 
steerage of a sailing vessel, landing in New 
York after a long voyage November 23, 1853. 
He had 30 cents capital and was in debt 60 
cents to a fellow passenger. On the voyage 
over he spent his time studying the English 
pronunciation from a book, and the day after 
his arrival he was able through this little 
knowledge to secure w^ork. In 1854, during 
the fall of that year he came west, and went 
to Chicago, Illinois. Small-pox was raging in 
that city at the time of young Leisen's arrival, 
and the same day he got there one of the 
boarders in the house w^here he had found a 
room, died with the plague. The dead man 
had been a carpenter and Leisen applied for 
and secured his A^acant position in the shop. 
The following year he moved to Centerville, 
Wisconsin, where he worked two years at his 
trade, and then started a general store and 
did a good business until the panic of 1873. 
Coming to Michigan in that year he bought 
out a small bottling works at Menominee, 
Avhere soft drinks were manufactured, and in 
1876, in partnership with John Henes, 




JACOB LEISEN. 

bought out two small breweries and sold the 
first beer in February. The sales for the first 
year were less than 800 barrels, but this has 
shown a yearly increase, and the output last 
year (1898) was 22,000 barrels. 

During the Civil AVar Mr. Leisen organ- 
ized Company B, 45th Wisconsin Volunteer 
Infantry and was mustered into service as 
captain November 4, 1864. The company 
served around Nashville, Tennessee, until the 
close of the war. 

Mr. Leisen was an alderman the first two 
years that the city of Menomineee was incor- 
porated; he was also postmaster at Centerville^ 
Wisconsin, for six years, and a member of the 
Democratic State Central Committee of Mich- 
igan in 1892-'94. In his politics he is a 
^^Gold'' Democrat. He married at Center- 
ville, Wisconsin, in 1858, Miss Verena Fehr- 
enbach and has six children. 

Mr. Leisen is a director of the Lumbennaii's; 
National Bank and president of the Memlaet- 
inee Stained Glass Works of that city* Se 
belongs to the Loyal Legion and the Gfimd 
Army of the Republic and is m hot^bty 
member vof the Sons af Heirman. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




FREDERICK BRAASTAB. 

BRAASTAD, FREDERICK. Norway 
and Sweden has furnished Michigan with 
many valuable citizens, men who have helped 
in the development of the vast mineral and 
timber resources of the state, who have 
wielded the ax, the pick and the shovel, bear- 
ing with fortitude the cold winters of our 
northern woods, not unlike the winters in their 
own lands, and growing up with the country. 
These two hardy races are largely represented 
on the Upper Peninsula, and much of the 
prosperity and progress of that section of 
Michigan is due to their individual and col- 
lective efforts. Many of them, since they be- 
came citizens of the United States, have held 
high offices under their adopted government, 
and won places in the esteem of the people by 
their honest and manly methods. 

Ringebo, Guldbrandsdalen, in Norway, is 
the birthplace of Frederick Braast^d, form- 
erly state treasurer of Michigan, and now a 
resident of Ishpeming, where he is at present 
engaged in conducting a mercantile business. 
He is also largely interested in mining proper- 
ties here, up to the close of 1899 having held a 
half interest in the Winthrop mines. 



He was born in the year 1847 and received 
a common school education at the little vil- 
lage school adjacent to his father^s farm. 
When not attending school he helped with the 
.farm work until he reached the age of 16, 
Avhen he secured a position as clerk in a store 
at Lillehammer, where he remained for five 
years. He decided to try his fortune in the 
new world and came to the United States in 
1868, and in October of the same year he 
went to Marquette, Michigan, where he found 
work as a common day laborer. In 1869 he 
clerked for J. P. Pendell, of Negaunee, work- 
ing for him four years, and leaving in 1879 
to go into the mercantile business on his own 
account. Mr. Braastad had saved a small 
amount of nioney, and he now branched out 
for himself, opening his store in Ishpeming 
with a very modest stock of goods, but busi- 
ness flourished and since that time has de- 
veloped into one of the largest and finest in 
the whole Upper Peninsula. Mr. Braastad has 
since become identified with many other im- 
portant and prominent enterprises. 

Mr. Braastad is a man of keen discernment 
and recognized business ability. He is a 
leader of the Scandinavian element in the 
Upper Peninsula, and has been elected to 
offices of trust by the people of this state. 

He was made state treasurer in 1891-^92, 
by a vote of 179,744 to 178,857 for J. B. 
Moore, Republican; 25,218 for A. P. Cod- 
dington, Prohibitionist, and 14,226 for H. H. 
Blackman, Industrial. 

Mr. Braastad is a leading member of all the 
Scandinavian societies of this state, and also 
of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
He married in 1874 Miss Ingeborg Kunutson, 
and eight children have been the result of the 
union. Arvid C, the eldest boy, is now 
assisting in the management of his father's 
stores, the other children, Ida, Julius, Flor- 
ence, Ingeborg, Lillie, Borghill and Helen are 
living at home in Ishpeming and attending 
the schools of that city. Besides his present 
business, Mr. Braastad is a director in the 
Peninsular Bank of Ishpeming, and the Ne- 
gaunee & Ishpeming Street Railway & Elec- 
tric Company. In 1898 he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the Ishpeming board of education and 
in 1900 was elected mayor of the city. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



sm 



LAWTON, CHARLES DeWITT. The 
ancestors of the subject of this sketch, on both 
the paternal and maternal side, came from 
England and settled in this country early 
in the seventeenth century. His mother's 
family, whose name was Wiggins, emi- 
grated to New York and remained there. 
The original (American) Lawtons came from 
Lawton, England, and they settled in Rhode 
Island with Roger Williams in 1636. The 
early records of the Rhode Island colony 
freely show the connection of this family with 
its formative history. The paternal great- 
grandfather of Charles D., and his maternal 
grandfather, were both soldiers on the patriot 
side in the war of the Revolution. In 1794 
his paternal great-grandfather settled in Her- 
kimer county, ?f . Y., where his father, Nathan 
Lawton, was born in 1801, his life closing at 
Auburn, N. Y., in 1892. Charles D. Lawton 
was born at Rome, N. Y., where his father 
then resided, on November 4th, 1835, and 
was mainly educated at the Auburn Academy 
and at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., 
from which latter institution he graduated 
with honors in 1858. Eor three years, 1860- 
1863, he was principal of the academy at 
Auburn, N. Y., and until 1865 was city en- 
gineer also. The Michigan Central railroad 
having located a station on lands owned by 
his father, the father platted there the village 
of Lawton, to which the son removed in 1865, 
and engaged in part in the nursery business. 
He purchased at Geneva, K. Y., 5,000 grape 
cuttings, which were planted out in vine- 
yards, thus starting the important grape in- 
dustry at Lawton. In 1866-7 he was the 
moving spirit in the establishment of a blast 
furnace at Lawton, for the manufacture of 
charcoal pig iron from Lake Superior ore. He 
also conducted a foundry and machine shop at 
the same place. In 1870 he was appointed 
Assistant Professor of Engineering at the Uni- 
versity. In 1872 and '73 he assisted Maj. 
Brooks in the geological survey of the Mar- 
quette iron region and the Menominee ringe. 
He continued in the wvirk in the Upper Penin- 
sula, and in 1877-78 assisted Mr. C. E. Wright 
in the field work and in the preparation of his 
report as Com-niissioner of Mineral Statistics. 
Thencefoi'Ward he took upon himself the ac- 
tive duties of this office, writing the reports for 
1880, '81 and \S2, Mr. AYright remaining 
Commissioner, but Mr. Lawton doing all the 




CHARLES DbWITT LAWTON. 

work, for which he received the appropriation 
provided by the state. In 1884 Gov. Alger 
appointed him Commissioner of Mineral Sta^ 
tistics, having first offered him the appoint- 
ment of State Geologist. He continued to 
hold the office until 1891, publishing each year 
a report covering the mines and mineral in- 
terests of the state. These reports are now 
much sought for and prized by men in all 
parts of the world who are interested in Michi- 
gan geology and Michigan mines. 

Mr. Lawton has always been an active Ke- 
publican, though never an aspirant for political 
office. The office of Regent of the University 
can hardly be termed a political one, and for 
this trust he was urged by his friends before 
the Republican State Convention in 1897, 
resulting in his nomination and election. 

With his activity in other industries, Mr. 
Lawton has surpassed the average citizen in 
adding to the population of the state. Mar- 
ried in 1860 at Seneca Falls, N. Y., to Miss 
Lovina L. Latham, daughter of O. S. Latham, 
nine children, five sons and four daughters, 
all living, have been the fruit of the unioHv 
The sons are all filling useful positions in the 
professions, the daughters being liberally edu* 
cated. Mr. Lawton has l^een a racmbov of this 
Masonic fraternity since 1860. He still ir€h 
sides at Lawton, near which he has ^xt^yair^ 
farming interests. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




WILLIAM W. TERRIFF. 

TERRIFF, WILLIAM W. W. W. Ter- 
riff, of Portland, Mich., was born on a farm 
near Guelph, Ontario, July 16, 1866. His 
antecedents on both sides were Scotch, his 
father being a native of Aberdeen, Scotland. 
Aft^r leaving school he worked in a dry goods 
store in a country town, later accepting a posi- 
tion as timekeeper in the shops of the Mid- 
land Railway, then located at Port Hope; 
then went to Rochester, 'New York, finding 
a position in a large department store. 
When living at home, he was called upon to 
assist in doing the family washing, from which 
he conceived the thought of inventing a wash- 
ing machine. x\fter several experiments and 
disappointments, he scored a success, and after 
securing his patent and selling a large number 
of machines, he sold his Canadian right and 
secured a patent in the United States. In 
September, 1889, he came to Grand Rapids, 
but found washing machines more plentiful 
here than in Canada and they seemed almost 
a drug on the market. He tried to interest 
several manufacturers in and around Grand 
Rapids, but none could be induced 'to even 
make machines for him at a given price, until 
he met Mr. C. J. Warren, of Portland, who 
was at that time making furniture in a small 
way, and with whom he succeeded in making 
a contract for a given number of washers at 
a given price, while the inventor exploited 
the territory. After about six months sell- 



ing machines and territory in Michigan, a 
stock company was organized in Portland for 
the manufacture of the machines, under the 
style of the Portland Manufacturing Co. 

Mr. Terriff engaged with the company at 
a sakry of $50 per month and 25 cents 
royalty on each machine, he to go on the 
road and appoint agents; but after ten months 
he returned home, only to find the stockholders 
discouraged and on the point of abandoning 
the enterprise, but Mr. Terriff made them a 
proposition to continue for another year and 
give him the entire management, without 
compensation other than his royalty. This 
they accepted, and at the end of the first 
' year a cash dividend of 20 per cent, was de- 
clared, with one-half of the company's in- 
debtedness paid off. At the end of the sec- 
ond year, he handed them a cash dividend of 
50 per cent, and all indebtedness paid. The 
next year the stockholders received a cash 
dividend of 100 per cent, and the stock is 
now worth 500 cents on the dollar and no 
one willing to sell at that. The Portland 
Manufacturing Co. is now one of the largest 
and most successful washing machine fac- 
tories in the country. 

The reasons for Mr. Terriff's success are 
not difficult to understand. Before he was 
an inventor, he was a salesman, and under- 
stood the tribulations of the chap who solicits 
orders for a washing machine. Unlike most 
inventors, he has remarkable ability in the 
management and exploitation of his device 
or product, and can handle successfully a busi- 
ness which has strewn the country with wrecks 
in the shape of dismantled and abandoned 
manufacturing plants, and win success where 
others have achieved only failure. He is also 
one of the organizers of the Portland Furni- 
ture Co. and a stockholder in the Michigan 
Commode and Cabinet Co. 

Mr. Terriff was one of the original organ- 
izers of the Wolverine Soap Co., but had no 
active part in its management, but when the 
soap business was on the point of collapse, he 
bought out the other stockholders and now 
has the management of the company, which 
paid a dividend of 65 per cent the first year, 
and there is every prospect of the stock being 
even more valuable than that of the Port- 
land Manufacturing Co. 

Mr. Terriff is comparatively a young man, 
and his remarkable record is due wholly to 
the exceptional executive ability with which 
he is endowed, and he is looked upon as one 
of the shrewdest business men in Michigan. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



PARKEE, Cr. WHITBECK. Marine 
City's young mayor, G. AVhitbeck Parker, 
represents the progressive elenaent of that 
city, and he has been instrumental in push- 
ing suggested improvements and all move- 
ments tending toward the advancement of 
that city. lie is a Democrat and was elected 
to the office of mayor April 4, 1807, re-elected 
in 1898, in a city which usually gives from 100 
to 250 Republican majority. Although the 
balance of the Eepublican ticket was elected 
at the time of Mr. Parker's election, he carried 
the city by a handsome plurality. Such honor 
is seldom accorded so young a man as Mr. 
Parker, and it must be credited to his popular- 
ity among all classes, especially the business 
element of Marine City, in which the young 
mayor is a sturdy and prominent figure. As 
junior member of the firm of L. B. Parker & 
Son, he is part owner of a line of vessels now 
plying the lakes, and he was given the posi- 
tion of manager with an interest in his father's 
business when only 21 years of age. 

The extreme youth of the junior member 
of the firm of L. B. Parker & Son was at one 
time a great subject for jest among the ves- 
sel owners, who gave him the title of "the 
persistent kid," and he has never been 
ashamed of that name, for this trait in his 
character has given him a high standing 
among the larger vessel owners; and he has 
shown that thorough his characteristic persis- 
tency he has been able to make a success in 
his work. Even in dull times "the persistent 
kid" has managed to hustle up business, keep- 
ing his boats moving all the time, and yet 
finding plenty of opportunity to exercise his 
functions as mayor of the city in which he 
lives and works. 

Mr. Parker was born in Marine City, June 
22, 1868, and he received a portion of his 
education there, finishing up at that splendid 
Michigan institution, the Michigan Military 
Academy, where he received the training 
which has stood him in such good stead in 




G. WHITBECK PARKER. 

the business world. He comes from good, old 
American stock, as the name Parker implies. 
His great grandfather, Robert Parker, helped 
in the war of the American colonies against 
the mother country in 1776, and the Parkers 
have been identified with the history of the 
early days of the American republic, especi- 
ally down east, in that cradle of liberty, 
Massachusetts. 

As mayor of his native city, Mr. Parker 
has won the respect of his townsmen by his 
firmness of character, his executive ability 
and his non-partisan methods. His efforts 
have always been to conduct the affairs of the 
city in a thoroughly business-like manner, 
and with these ends in view, the advancement 
of its interests, the enlargement of its com- 
mercial resources, the proper conduct of its 
municipal ofiices and the good government of 
its people. 

Mr. Parker is a bachelor, and is not a mem- 
ber of any secret organization. He beloi^ 
to the Newport Club, however, the local 
social club of Marine City, commodoire of the 
Lake St. Clair Ice Yacht Club, and is pr^^ 
dent of the local gun dub. 



MEN OF FKOC^^K^JSfci 




MARK HOPKINS. 

HOPKINS, MARK. Mark Hopkins, of 
St^ Clair, a ^\'ell-known capitalist and promi- 
nent man of that city, is the great-grandson 
of Samuel Hopkins, the first pastor of the 
church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, 
and a direct descendant of Rev. Mark Hop- 
kins, D. D., for many years president of 
Williams College, who was a direct descen- 
dant of Sir Richard Hopkins. In England, 
this family has been represented in Parlia- 
ment for a period of four hundred years. 
John Hopkins, the founder of the family in 
this country, came to America in 1804. 

Samuel Hopkins, the father of Mark Hop- 
kins, was born in Berkshire county, Massa- 
chusetts, and came to Michigan with his 
father as early as 1824, settling in the city 
of Detroit. In the fall of that year the fam- 
ily moved to Palmer, now St. Clair, leaving 
young Samuel in Detroit, where he remained 
for a time before going to work with his 
parents in St. Clair. In 1831 he married 
Miss Mary A. Keeney, and out of the large 
family born to them, Mark and Edward 
Hopkins alone survive. Samuel Hopkins 



ing a carpenter and joinings sh^p^ whca?© fee* 
/tauffht his son Mark that trade. Mark was 
sent to an academy in that city, taught by 
Rev. O. C. Thompson, where he received a 
substantial education. 

In 1859 he went to Houghton, Michigan, 
where for a time he was employed as a pat- 
ternmaker in an iron works. Before this he 
had become interested in a planing mill in 
Wisconsin, which he owned and operated 
for some time. He lived for a while in Chi- 
cago, but ovvung to business reverses, found 
himself compelled to return to St. Clair, 
where he engaged in manufacturing hubs and 
spokes. Through the death of his brother, 
Mark Hopkins, of California, in 1878, Samuel 
Hopkins inherited a large fortune, which did 
not pass to his sons, except in the way of 
gifts, until some years later, when, by the 
death of himself and his wife, the estate 
descended to their sons. Since that time 
Mark Hopkins has inherited another large 
amount through the death of another uncle. 

Mark Hopkins owns large property in- 
terests in St. Clair, and is interested in 
the Hopkins Steamboat Company. He was 
the original promoter and stockholder in the 
Diamond Crystal Salt Company, and owns 
the property now leased for foundry purposes 
to D. LaMont. Mr. Hopkins was one of the 
promoters of the Somerville School for Young 
Ladies, which was afterwards converted into 
the Somerville Springs Resort, managed now 
by Mr. Hopkins' only son, AValter J . Hopkins. 

The wealth brought to St Clair by the 
Hopkins family has been of great material 
benefit to tliat city. The building of the 
beautiful home kept many people employed, 
and the paving of Front street, from Somer- 
ville to Oakland, as well as the water works, 
are among the improvements given St. Clair 
by Mark Hopkins. 

That the people of St. Clair have at least 
in a measure appreciated this fact is shown 
by the fact that Mr. Hopkins has served one 
term on the school board, one term as alder- 
man and two terms as mayor of St. Clair. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



881 



WOODWORTH, M. D., FRED DE 
FOREST. Fred De Forest Woodworth, 
County Clerk of Ingham County, Michigan, 
and a resident of the county seat. Mason, is 
the son of George W. Woodworth, who came 
to Michigan from New York State in 1831 
and settled near Jackson, Michigan. The 
family is an old one in the United States, 
coming from England in the latter part of 
the sixteenth century, and locating in New 
York State, and afterwards in New England, 
where the name is an old and respected one 
today. 

The elder Woodworth engaged in farming 
near Jackson and became quite well to do. 
Fred De Forest Woodworth was born on the 
farm, December 9, 1840, and when old 
enough sent to the district school until his 
14th year and then to the public schools of 
Jackson and later to the High School of that 
city, from which he graduated when 17 years 
old. He expressed his desire of becoming a 
civil engineer and the next four years of his 
life were spent as a student under Henry O. 
Bean. 

The death of his father upset the young 
man's plans, and his mother persuaded him 
to give up his civil engineering work and take 
up the study of medicine as his elder brother 
was a successful physician enjoying a large 
practice at Leslie, Michigan. In compliance 
with his mother's wishes, Fred then turned 
his attention to the study of medicine, read- 
ing in his brother's office at Leslie, and in 
the fall of 1866 entering the medical depart- 
ment of the University of Michigan. He 
graduated from the Detroit Medical College 
of Michigan in 1869, and after receiving his 
diploma and the title of M. D., he entered into 
partnership with his brother at Leslie, and re- 
mained with him for one year. Money did 
not flow in fast enough to suit the young doc- 
tor so he began to look about for a more favor- 
able opening for himself , where the chance 




FRED DE FOREST WOODWORTH, M. D 

of making a good income was afforded him. In 
the spring of 1870 he went to Whitehall, 
Mich., and finding an office, hung out his sign 
and waited for patients. The town was then a 
lively lumbering center, but eight other doc- 
t6rs had located there previous to Dr. Wood- 
worth's coming, and at the end of six months 
Dr. Woodworth wTote home to his brother and 
borrowed enough money to get out of the 
town. In May, 1871, he removed to Onon- 
daga, Michigan, and established a good prac- 
tice, following his profession until January. 
1, 1899, when he assumed the duties of county 
clerk of Ingham county, and removed to 
Mason, where he now resides. 

He is a Republican, and has held the office 
of toAvnship clerk of schools for six years; 
township clerk of Onondaga Township, and 
supervisor, Ingham Coimty board, one year. 
In 1898 he was nominated on the Republican 
ticket for county clerk. 

Dr. Woodworth is a Mason, Knights Tern-- 
plar and an Elk. He married Miad Lpuiae C. 
Baldwin, daughter of Thomas K* italdwiijt, at 
Onondaga, in 1873. 



M^N or PROGEESS. 




HON. JUSTIN RICE WHITING. 

WHITING, HOK JUSTIN RICE. 
Foremost among the men who have been 
identified with the progress of this State 
stands Justin Rice Whiting, the best known 
representative of democratic principle in 
Michigan, and a prominent figure in its 
political history. 

He was bom in Bath, Steuben County, 
New York, February 18, 1847, but he has 
lived in St. Clair since 1849. His father, 
Col. Henry Whiting, came from New York 
_ State to Michigan in 1844, but after a short 
stay returned to his native state. In 1849 
Col. Whiting founded at St. Clair the mer- 
cantile business still conducted under the 
Whiting name. 

Justin was prepared for college in the dis- 
trict school of St. Clair, and entered the 
University of Michigan at the age of seven- 
teen. He continued his studies until the be- 
ginning of his junior year, then left School to 
take a place in the store, later becoming a 
partner with his father. 

In 1879, he was elected mayor of St. Clair; 
for three years he was director of the Union 
School, and afterwards was moderator of tl^e 



Board of Trustees. In 1880 he took an 
active part in the establishment of the Som- 
merville School for Women. He' affiliated 
with the Republican party until 1876, when 
he voted for Peter Cooper. Mr. Whiting 
also served on the Board of Aldermen in St. 
Clair for several terms. He was elected to 
the State Senate from the Seventeenth Dis- 
trict ^St. Clair County) in 1882, on the 'Teo- 
ple's Ticket.'' 

Mr. Whiting declined a renomination for 
the Senate iv. 1884, but 1886, when that 
locally celebrated 'Telephone Convention'' 
occured, he accepted a nomination for Con- 
gress. Mr. Whiting would have declined this 
nomination, and had entered the hall of the 
convention for that purpose, when the chair- 
man, Judge Walker, of Capac, declared the 
convention adjourned sine die. The ''Old 
Man of the Sea" of the Republican party, 
John P. Sanborn, was his opponent. When 
the votes were counted, Sanborn was shown 
to be beaten, his minority being 827. Carlisle 
was speaker when Mr. Whiting first took his 
seat in Washington. Mr. Whiting represented 
his district in the fiftieth, fifty-first, fifty-sec- 
ond and fifty-third Congresses. In 1896 he 
was Democratic nominee for lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, and in 1898 he was nominated for Gov- 
ernor on the Democratic ticket, but was de- 
feated by Governor Pingree. 

In 1868 Justin R. Whiting married Miss 
Emily F. Owen, the daughter of the sister of 
the late E. B. Ward, and the wedding took 
place at the Ward residence on Fort street 
west, Detroit. They have been the parents 
of eleven children, eight of whom are living. 
Mr. AVhiting is the vice-president of the 
Ward Lumber Company, of Chicago, Illinois, 
a stockholder in the Inter-Ocean Transporta- 
tion Company, of Milwaukee, senior member 
of the firm of J. R. Whiting & Company, of 
St Clair, and was one of the organizers of 
the Diamond Crystal Salt Company, of St. 
Olair. He is a Mason, a Knights Templar, 
belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the 
Knights of the Maccabees, and the Indepen- 
dent Order of Foresters. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



388 



GITDDIHY, JOHN DONNELL. John 
Donnell Cuddihy is the Democratic leader of 
the Calumet district, and a man of sterling 
business character, well known and liked 
throughout the county. He is a Michigan 
man, having been born in this State, and his 
father. Captain Michael Cuddihy, was one of 
the first settJers in the copper country, coming 
to Michigan from near Tipperary, Ireland, in 
1854. The old gentleman was one of the 
first mining captains in the copper country. 

John Donnell Cuddihy was born in Hough- 
ton, Michigan, January 15, 1857, at the Isle 
Royal min(^, where his father was employed 
at the time. Later the family moved to Han- 
cock, Michigan, Avhere the boy attended the 
public school, until another move on the part 
of the family took him to the town of Calu- 
met, which at that time was only a little min- 
ing camp. As the town increased in size, a 
public school was built, and young Cuddihy 
was the first scholar enrolled, and one of the 
eight that stood for honors at the end of the 
first term. 

He went to work when he was 15 years old 
at the Mineral Eange telegraph ofiice as a 
messenger boy, for the purpose of learning 
telegraphy. He was not paid for his services 
in delivering messages unless the message had 
to be carried over a mile from the office, when 
he received 25 cents per message, and at this 
ratio the largest amount he received for one 
month's work amounted to $2.75. In less 
than nine months he had mastered the dots 
and dashes of the Morse system, and was then 
assigned as an operator to Eagle River, Michi- 
gan, where he received a salary of $15.00 per 
month and board. He remained in that posi- 
tion until April, 1874, and then in company 
with Captain Bendery went to Baraga, Michi- 
gan, where the captain intended to establish a 
telegraph office. The arrangements in some 
way fell through, and young Cuddihy during 
the two months of waiting for the office to be- 
come a reality, secured work loading lumber 
into scows. He then learned that when the 
office was established he was only to receive . 




JOJIN DONNELL. CUDDIHY. 

his board for his services, and as an offer was 
made him by Edward Ryan, he returned to 
Calumet and went to work for him as clerk in 
a general store. He was promoted to head 
bookkeeper in 1879 and was made manager in 
1887, in which position he still continues. The 
business is one of the most flourishing in the 
Upper Peninsula, and controls a large trade 
throughout the surrounding district. 

Mr. Cuddihy has found time to devote to 
ether enterprises, and is a director in the First 
National Bank of Calumet. He is also a 
director in the Northern Michigan Building & 
Loan Association of Hancock, Michigan. 
Associated with his present employer, Mr^ 
Edward Ryan, Mr. Cuddihy was one of the 
organizers of the First National Bank of Oalu-- 
met, in 1886. 

Mr. Cuddihy is a Democrat and has held 
a few political offices. He was recorder in 
1882 and 1884' and from 1886 until 1892 
president of Red Jacket. He was a member 
of the Democratic State Central Committee 
from 1894 until 1898. He is a Catholic, and 
associates with the following fraternal bodies : 
the B. P. O. E., A. O. U. W., A; a Bt. wd 
Modern Woodmen of the World* 



MEN OF PROGRESS, 




WILLIAM J. DALEY. 

DALEY, WILLIAM J. Bom Novein 
ber, 4, 184G, on a farm near Mt. Clemens, 
and educated in the public schools of that 
city^ William J. T)aley has taken an active 
part in the progress of Michigan and the his- 
tory of the United States. 

His hard work commenced very early in 
his career, and he has continued with the 
same amount of energy ever since. 

When a lad, Mr. Daley drove a horse and 
cart in the employ of the Grand Trunk Rail- 
way Co., during the building of that now 
great system, and received for his services 
the suirf of 48 cents per day. Later he 
worked in a ^^general store," imtil, in 1863, 
he enlisted in the United States navy to serve 
during the civil war. He was 17 years of 
age when, in the fall of 1864, he became a 
sailor in the navy of Uncle Sam, and he 
served one year, leaving the service in 1865. 
at the close of the war. Mr. Daley was an 
able seaman on board the U. S. gunboat "For- 
rest Rose," one of those light draught boats 
belonging to the "Mosquito Fleet,'' stationed 
in the Mississippi, engaged in patrol duty and 



occasionally demolishing the batteries erected 
along the river by the Confederates. 

After the war Mr. Daley again took up his 
commercial life in the store of Traver, Ste- 
phens & Traver, in Mt. Clemens, remaining 
with that firm until June, 1871, saving his 
earnings during that time with the intention 
of starting in business on hig own account. 
At last he was able to do this, his first busi- 
ness venture being in the hardware business, 
in company with George W. Robertson, 
under the firm name of Robertson & Daley. 
This partnership, begim in eTune, 1871, con- 
tinued until 1880, when Mr. Daley sold out 
his interest in the hardware trade and, with 
Phil. Shook, started in the boat building bus- 
iness. The firm of Daley & Shook soon be- 
came well known, and was most succesvsful. 
It built many lake freighters, among them 
ihe Ida M. Torrent and Virginius, and at one 
time it owned five other vessels on the Great 
Lakes. Mr. Daley remained a member of this 
firm until 1889, when he sold out his interest. 
In 1881 he organized the Mt. Clemens 
Bath Co., Limited, of Mt. Clemens, owning 
and operating the largest tub-bathing house 
in the world. This scheme was a success 
from the beginning. The capital stock of 
$16,000 has never been increased beyond 
that amount, and the company now owns an 
entire block in the very center of the city, 
together with its large bath house and valu- 
able plant. Mr. Daley has also invested in 
much valuable real estate in the Bath Citv; 
he owns the Lexington Hotel, and was form- 
erly one of the owners of the Sherman House. 
His honjc, situated on South Gratiot avenue, 
is one of the prettiest in Mt. Clemens. 

Mr. Daley has engaged in political life, 
having been elected mayor of Mt. Clemens 
in 1888. He is a member of the Chamber 
of Commerce, a director in the Ullrich Sav- 
ings Bank, and a member of the "Old 
Crowd'' and Mt. Clemens Clubs. 

November 4, 1891, Mr. Daley married 
Miss Martha Blanche Johnson, daughter of 
Robert F. Johnson, at Lexington, Kentucky. 



HIStOKIOAL SEETOSES. 



BENNETT, EBENEZEK OMSTEAD, 
M. D. The story of the struggle of Eben- 
ezer Omstead Bennett to obtain an education 
and to make his way in the world should 
furnish excellent reading material for any 
young man who has become discouraged and 
feels, like giving up the fight. Dr. Bennett 
was born in Maumee, Ohio, January 16, 
1838. His father, E. O. Bennett, who came 
from Connecticut, was a cabinet maker and 
joiner by trade. 

When Dr. Bennett was still a boy the fam- 
ily moved to Michigan, and he was sent to 
the district school in Perrinville, Michigan. 

Until he was twenty years of age the 
young inan worked on a farm near Ypsilanti, 
and during the winter months he attende<l 
the High School in that city. In his efforts 
to 'obtain an education at this period, young 
Bennett with four others, students like him- 
self, rented a small room at Ypsilanti. In 
this room they did their own cooking, study- 
ing, and, when night came, all five turned in 
together. 

One spring young Bennett found himself 
short of funds and unable to meet the ex- 
penses of his tuition. For a time things 
looked very cloudy, but Prof. Joseph Esta- 
brook, learning of the young student's di- 
emma, generously .advanced the necessary 
amount, $4.50, out of his o^vn purse. Shortly 
after this the young fellow worked in the 
hay fields until he earned enough money, and 
drove across the country to repay it. 

He left school in Ypsilanti when he was 
20 years of age and became a teacher in the 
school at New Boston, Mich. During thie 
summer he returned home and assisted his 
father. In 1862 he visited an uncle in 
Vinton, Iowa, and while there was offered 
the position of principal in the school of that 
city. . He accepted and remained there until 
1863, when he returned to Wayne. 

This same year he enlisted in Company 
M, First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, 
and was sent to the front at once. He served 




EBENEZER OMSTEAD BENNETT, M. D. 

until the close of the war in 1865, during 
which time he participated in the battle of 
La Verne, Tennessee. After his discharge 
he returned to Michigan and entered Harper 
Hospital in Detroit, as clerk for Dr. Farrand, 
who had charge of the hospital at that time. 
He resigned the position in the fall and re- 
sumed teaching in the college at Logansport, 
Indiana. Later he came back to Michigan 
and tmight in the public schools of Wayne. 
In 1876 he entered the University of Michi- 
gan to study medicine, graduating from there 
in 1879. Two years later he was appointed 
house surgeon by the regents. 

In May, 1881, he was tendered and Ac- 
cepted the place as Medical Superintendent 
of the Wayne County Asylum, which posi- 
tion he has filled most successfully up to April, 
1900, at which time he resigned to accept the 
position of surgeon for the Soldiers' Home in 
Grand Rapids. 

October 28, 1863, he married Mifis Jan- 
netta D. Felton, and two children have been 
the result of that marriage. His mniy I>r, 
Joseph E. Bennett, is now practicing p%lii'' 
cian, located in Wayne, and the da^^gbt«iri 
Antoinette, is teaching at HarbcMP Spf^^% 
Michigan. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




CHARLES EDWIN THOMAS. 

THOMAS, CHARLES EDWIN. Mr. 
Thomas' father, Thomas H. Thomas, a native 
of New York, was of Welsh stock, the latter's 
father and mother coming to this country in 
1800. On his mother's side, he is of English 
and Irish descent. 

Mr. Thomas was born in the village, now 
city, of Battle Creek, November 28, 1844, 
and has always resided there. With him. 
Battle Creek has grown to the enterprising and 
prosperous city it now is, and no one has taken 
more pride in its growth than he. 

His father and mother came into the state in 
1835, and his father, at the age of 20 and up to 
the time of his death, was a prominent con- 
tractor and builder, many of the early mills 
and the first bridges on the Michigab Central 
railroad having been constructed by him. At 
the age of 14, Charles E. Thomas jbecame a 
member of the family of Dr. Edward Cox, one 
of the pioneer physicians of Michigan. 

His education was at the public schools of 
Battle Creek, and afterwards at the law school 
at Ann Arbor. Entering the law department 
in the fall of 1864, he graduated therefrom 



in the spring of 1868. At home he read law 
in the office of Judge Benjamin F. Graves 
and Myron H. Joy. On his return from Ann 
Arbor in 1868, he became a member of the 
law firm of Dibble, Brown & Thomas, which 
firm was succeeded by the firm of Brown & 
Thomas, Mr. Dibble going into railroading. 
By the death of Mr. Brown in 1887, the firm 
was succeeded by Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas 
is a Democrat in politics and has been many 
times chairman of the city and once of the 
county committee. Although his party has 
been for the most time in the minority, he 
has been frequently elected to office. He 
was alderman of the city four times and secre- 
tary of the school board for eighteen years 
continuously. He was elected Circuit Court 
Commissioner of the county, being one of 
three others elected on the Democratic ticket 
for the first time in twenty-four years. In 
1894 he was appointed postmaster by Presi- 
dent Cleveland. Under him the postoffice 
^vas raised from a second-class to a first-class 
office, and his management was praised by all 
the citizens of Battle Creek. While an alder- 
man, he was chairman of the ways and means 
committee, and as such had to meet the pay- 
ment of nearly $200,000 railroad aid bonds, 
and his report, after the Supreme Court de- 
cision, pointed out the way for their payment. 
While on the school board, the board paid off 
$81,000 of ten per cent, bonds, and built three 
school houses. The result of the wiping out 
of this bonded indebtedness is credited, to a 
great extent, to Mr. Thomas by his fellow 
members. 

In 1874 Mr. Thomas was married to Isa- 
bella A. Adams. They have one daughter, 
Maud A. Thomas. 

Mr. Thomas was one of the organizers of 
the Union School Furniture Company, and 
of the Advance Thresher Company. Of the 
latter company he is, and has been, its attor- 
ney and a director since its organization. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 
JOSEPH EDWARD SCALLON, M. D. 



8W 



SCALLON, M. D., JOSEPH EDWARD. 
The family of Dr. eloseph Edward Scallon, of 
Hancock, Michigan, came to this country in 
1810, from Ireland. His father, Edward 
Scallon, became engaged shortly afterward in 
the lumbering business in and around Joliette, 
Province of Quebec. 

Joseph E. Scallon was born in Brooklyn, 
New York, February 25, 1853, and when his 
father removed to Joliette the boy was sent to 
the Classical College at that place until he was 
18 years of age. In 1870 he joined the last 
detachment of volunteers who left Canada to 
join the Zouaves in the Pope's army. He pro- 
ceeded as far as France. The capture of 
Rome, September 20, 1870, by the forces of 
Victor Emmanuel prevented him from join- 
ing the regiment. He returned to Canada, 
finished his classical course of studies, entering 
Laval University at Quebec, studied medicine 
there for two years, changing to Victoria Col- 
lege of Medicine at Montreal, from which he 
graduated in 1874 and secured a license to 
practice. August 25, 1874, he came to Mich- 
igan and hung up his sign in Negaunee. His 
first month's practice amounted to $1.50, and 
as he only had $4.50 when he started, his ex- 
chequer was very low. The next month he 
took in 50 cents, and up to January 1, 1875, 
he had only received $19.60 for four months' 
work. There were a number of Frenchmen 
around ^egaunee engaged in chopping wood 
for the mining camps, so the young doctor 
tramped the woods in snowshoes and organ- 
ized a co-operative association among them, by 
which, upon payment of 50 cents a month, 
they could have Dr. Scallon's attendance in 
case of sickness or accident. Part of the men 
paid for one month, and then all the mines 
closed down except one, and that company put 
their men under the charge of their own phy- 



sician, and the co-operative association was no 
more. Then the smallpox broke out in Ne- 
gaunee, and Dr. Scallon was put in chatge of 
the pest house, and after the epidemic hiui 
passed he received $150 in town orders for his 
services, which his landlady positively refused 
to accept in payment of his board* In just 
one year he had earned the munificent sum of 
$300, from the time he arrived in Negaunee, 
so with a sigh he packed up his worldly pos- 
sessions and moved to Hancock. Here he 
soon established a lucrative practice and has 
since built it up into one of the best in the 
county. 

Dr. Scallon was formerly a Democrat, and 
was elected mayor of Hancock in 1890-'d2^i 
He also acted as chairman of the Democrrfkic 
congressional and county committee. He 
became a Republican in 1896, on the money 
issue. He has been a member of the school 
board at Hancock for 15 years, and health 
officer for 22 years. 

Dr. Scallon married, in 1877, Miss Bridget 
Finnegan, daughter of Michael Finnegan, 
Avho was one of the pioneers of the copper 
country, who went there in 1847. There are 
five children, three surviving, as a result of 
this union. Marguerette is studying at the 
Literary Department of the University of 
Michigan, and Mary, Anna and Bridget are 
attending the public schools of Hancock, 
Michigan, where their parents ndw reside. 

Dr. Scallon is a Catholic. He Vas State 
secretary of the A. O. H. for six years, and 
State delegate for two years. He has been 
one of the national directors of the order, and 
the first president and organizer of that splen- 
did Catholic organization, which has such an 
extended membership in this State, the 0* M* 
B. A. of Hancock. He is also a member id 
theA. O. U. W. 



MEN OF PROGBESS. 




AUSTIN WHITE ALVORD, M. D. 

AI.VOKD, AUSTIN WHITE, M. D. Dr. 
Alvord's paternal ancestors came remotely 
from Somersetshire, England, settling in 
Massachusetts in 1630. His great-great-grand- 
father, Gad Alvord, served through the Kevo- 
lutionary War as sergeant in a Massachusetts 
co^npany. His parents were Rev. Alanson 
and Adeline (Barrows) Alvord, of Chester, 
Mass., where Dr. Alvord was born Teb. 8rd, 
1838. When he was 9 years old his parents 
removed to Concord, Morgan Co., 111., his 
father being in the service of the home mis- 
sionary work of the Congregational Church. 
Two years later they removed to Downer's 
Grove, near Chicago, where they lived until 
the son was 14. With such preliminary edu- 
cation as he had received in his native place 
and in Illinois, he resolved to attend Oberlin 
College, in Ohio. Without a cent in his 
pocket he worked his way to Oberlin and also 
worked his way into the junior year. He paid 
$1.25 per week for his board, earning the 
money by sawing wood, but leaving Oberlin 
$40 in debt, passing from student to school 
teacher before he was 17, in which occupation 
he cancelled the debt which he had left behind. 
His mother having died in Hlinois, his father 



removed to Grass Lake, Mich., and was here 
joined by the son, who found employment as 
a farm hand. In the fall of 1868 he entered 
the literary department of the University, re- 
maining there some two years, during which 
time he read medicine under Prof. Corydon 
L. Ford, of the medical faculty, his ultimate 
aim being the medical profession. After leav- 
ing the University he taught school in Western 
New York, and in 1860-61 was principal of 
the High School at Owego. He had been en- 
gaged for a second year when the Civil War 
summoned the young men of the nation to its 
defense. Fifty-two young men of his school 
volunteered, and insisted that he take the 
command. He resigned the principalship for 
a captaincy in a company which, in the pro- 
cess of organization, became Company H, One 
Hundred and Ninth New York Volunteers. 
He served with the regiment until January, 
1864, when he was made surgeon to the De- 
partment of the South, and was mustered out 
in October, 1864, on account of physical disa- 
bility. With restored health. Dr. Alvord re- 
turned to the medical lectures at the Univer- 
sity and was graduated in 1868. After grad- 
uation he practiced medicine at Clinton, 
Mich., until May, 1882, then removed to Bat- 
tle Creek. He is a member of the American 
Medical Association, the Michigan State Medi- 
cal Society, Calhoun County Medical Society, 
Battle Creek Academy of Medicine, Ameri- 
can Public Health Association, American 
Academy of Political and Social Science, and 
is member and president of the Michigan 
State Medical Association. He is a member 
of the State Board of Kegistration (Medical 
Examining Board) since October, 1899, and 
has been a member of the Pension Examining 
Board since 1897. He is the present Health 
Officer of Battle Creek. He is a Knights 
Templar and member of Saladin Temple (Ma- 
sonic) of Grand Eapids, and member of the 
Maccabees, of the G. A. K. and the Loyal 
Legion. 

Dr. A Ivord has been twice married, first in 
1861 to Miss Eliza M. Barnes, of Ann Arbor, 
who died in 1877, leaving two children, 
Grace, wife of T. J. Kelliher, and William 
Eoy Alvord, the latter in the dental depart- 
ment of the University; second in 1878 to 
Miss Fannie E. Little, of Grinnell, Iowa. 
Their children are Louise and Max Barrows 
Alvord. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



LOCKERBY, WILLIAM H, On the pa- 
ternal side Mr. Lockerby is of Scotch descent, 
his father, John Lockerby, coming to Amer- 
ica from Aberdeen, Scotland, his mother's 
maiden name having been Flavia HoUenbeck. 
He was born at West Vienna, N. Y., Feb. 24, 
1859, his parents coming to Michigan ten 
years later and settling on a farm near the 
village of Quincy, in Branch County. His 
early education was that afforded by a coun- 
try school, with a term at the graded schools 
at Quincy. Beginning at the age of 17, he 
taught district school five winters, first receiv- 
ing $20 per month, and working as a farm 
hand during the summer months. He had 
read some law, taken the census, bought and 
sold farm produce, and had saved about $600 
up to 1883, when he decided to make the law 
his study and profession. Milo D. Campbell, 
then a young lawyer in Quincy, and at the 
present time president of the State Tax Com- 
mission, offered him a desk in his office, where 
he studied until December, 1884, when he 
was admitted to the bar before Judge R. R. 
Pealer, at Cold water. He remained with Mr. 
Campbell until December, 1885, then opened 
an office at Bronson, but remained there a few 
weeks only, when he returned to Quincy and 
entered into partnership with Mr. Campbell, 
who kept an office at the county seat. After 
a year in this connection he opened an office 
by himself at Quincy, where he now i§, the 
senior member of the law firm of Lockerby & 
Lockerby, with a braach office at Beading, 
which was discontinued in 1899. 

The Portland cement industry in Quincy 
owes its inception and successful develop- 
ment to the energy and perseverance of Mr. 
Lockerby. Becoming interested in the marl 
beds near Quincy, he interested some capital- 
ists of Sandusky, Ohio, in their proposed de- 
velopment, and secured options on all the 
nearby lands, but failed to secure enough 
financial means to make much progress. He 
then interested some Chicago capitalists to the 
extent of 'putting down some test wells. He 
remitted his law practice for the summer and 
assisted in the prospecting and putting down 
of the wells through the chain of lakes ex- 
tending some six or seven miles out from 




WILLIAM H. LOCKERBY. 

Quincy. The necessary financial means again 
ran short at this point, when he turned his 
attention to capitalists nearer home. In the 
fall of 1898 S. M. Wing, of Coldwater, to- 
gether with Detroit capitalists, took hold of 
the enterprise, and in January, 1899, the 
Michigan Portland Cement Company was or- 
ganized with a capital of $2,500,000. Two 
cement factories were built, one at Coldwater 
and one at Quincy, each of which turn out 
1,500 barrels daily. Mr. Lockerby sold his 
options to the company, but remains their lo- 
cal attorney. He has other business interests, 
including that of vice-president and director 
of the Quincy Knitting Company, 

Mr. Lockerby's official service has been 
quite extended and useful. He served as 
township clerk of Butler, was a member of the 
Branch County Board of School Examiners 
for five years, three years its secretary, and 
was secretary of the Quincy School Boa]^ 
three years. He was elected Circuit Court 
Commissioner for Branch County two terms, 
and in 1895 was appointed by Gov. Rich a 
member of the Railway and Street Crossiiig 
Board, being its secretary and serving until 
1899* He is a member of the Masonie Fla- 
temity and of the^ Knights Templar. 

Miss Cora Gorball, daughter of £tgld>^ 
Gorball, of Girard, Branch Coutity/ljecito!^ 
Mrs. Lockerby Sept. 26th, 1882; T^fJJ^W 
two daughters, Metha and Mai^}<Krlb^ 



MEN OF PK0GRES8. 




SAMUEL ANKER. 

ANKEK, SAMUEL. One of the leading 
business men of East Tawas, Michigan, the 
proprietor of the Anker Mercantile Company, 
of > that place, also of the Holland Hotel, and 
the Anker Lumber Company, Samuel Anker 
at ^7 years of age can look back now with 
pride to the time when a boy he worked for 
his board so that he might attend the little 
village school in Eochester, Michigan, where 
he was born December 25, 1852. 

His father, Samuel Anker, Sr., was the 
son of Sir William Anker, of England. Up 
to his tenth year, the subject of this sketch 
attended the district schools near his home, 
and enjoyed one winter term at the village 
school. The first employment that brought 
him any financial remuneration was picking 
up shingles in a shingle mill, working under 
the machine, at 75 cents per diem, out of 
which his board and room cost him $3.50. 
The little money over and above his expenses 
served to keep him in shoes and other neces- 
sities. He was shortly afterwards appren- 
ticed to the machine trade, where he earned 
50 cents a week and his board, and at the 
end of three years* hard work he was getting 



as much as $9 per week. He then joined his 
father, who built the first mill at Alpena, 
Michigan, the J. K. Lockwood sawmill. At 
this time Alpena was almost a wilderness, in 
the heart of a big timber country. At the 
age of 23 young Anker was given full charge 
of the Whittemore sawmill at Tawas City, 
where he was retained in that capacity for 
five years. He then started in business for 
himself as a lumber jobber and for three years 
put in five to seven millions feet of timber for 
this mill. In 1873 the Whittemore mill 
failed and all xYnker had to show for his work 
was a due bill for $1,900, and a few very 
weary horses. 

In 1874 he built a shingle mill on Tawas 
creek, which had a daily capacity of 40,000 
shingles. He started this enterprise with 
only $175 in cash, and $2,400 he borrowed 
at 10 per cent, to build the mill and equip it. 
In 1876 he loaded 320,000 shingles on the 
steamer Oconto, and the steamer promptly 
went ashore on the same night it sailed. This 
disheartened him in the shingle business, so 
he changed the character of his mill to a 
flour mil], having to mortgage the property 
to make the necessary alterations. Business 
was very bad, and the mortgagee came down 
upon him and closed him up. He then went 
into the woods as a blacksmith, working all 
that winter about 40 miles from Au Sable, 
Michigan, and the following spring, coming 
down with the log drive, he found work in 
the machine shop of what is now the D. & 
M. railroad. The next year he worked in the 
salt block in East Tawas, and in 1886 started 
a meat market at that place. The following 
year he went back into the shingle business, 
building a mill on Long lake, which has 
proven a financial success. In 1893, in com- 
pany with Temple Emery, he built the Hol- 
land Hotel, and when the Holland, Emery 
Company closed out their business in East 
Tawas, Mr. Anker bought it. He married 
Miss Eose Stickney at Saginaw, Michigan. 

Mr. Anker is a Chapter Mason, a Pythian, 
and belongs to the I. O. O. F. In politics he 
is a Eepublican. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



841 



MITCHELL, SAMUEL. Samuel Mitchell 
has had to start in life twice in his career, and 
the position he occupies in the business world 
today has only been the result of hard work 
and unabated energy. His father and his 
father's father were farmers, but he was not 
content to follow in the furrow after the slow- 
moving plow, so he has diverged from their 
footsteps, and is today one of the wealthiest 
and most respected citizens of Negaunee. 

He was born in Bridestowe, England, April 
11, 1846, where, when of age, he attended the 
-N^ational school until he was 12 years of age, 
and then worked in a grocery store at about 
$1.00 a Aveek. His next employment was in 
a bakery, where he received a sum equivalent 
to about $2.50 a week, imtil he was 15 years 
of age, Avhen he was put to work in a copper 
mine at Travistock, England, at £2 a month. 

When he was 18 years of age he came to 
America, and landed at Copper Harbor, 
Michigan, without money or friends. He 
worked in the Madison, Phoenix, Delaware, 
Resolute and Central mines and then with the 
Calumet, where he helped to open and work 
the first pit on the now famous Calumet & 
Hecla mine. In the fall of 1867 he started for 
the iron country, where he found work in the 
old Washington mine, at Humboldt. There 
he remained for three years, and in 1870 went 
to Negaunee and took a contract from the late 
Edward Breitung to mine ore on the South 
Hematite range. In 1871 he mined the first 
ore taken from the South Jackson mine on 
contract, also continuing to mine ore for Ed- 
ward Breitung until the fall of 1871. In 
January, 1872, he took a contract to do min- 
ing work at part of the old Saginaw mine, 
hauling the ore with teams to the main line of 
the railroad. In April, 1872, he contracted 
with the Lake Superior Iron Co. to mine ore at 
Section 19 mine, better known as the New 
Burt, where he conducted operations until 
May 1, 1873. He then took the captaincy of 
the Saginaw mine, and in December of that 
year was niade agent and general manager of 
the Saginaw Mining Co. In 1879 he leased 
and opened up for this company the Perkins 
mine on the Menominee range, ^d in 1883 




SAMUEL MITCHELL. 

commenced to explore the Negaunee mine, 
retaining the management of the company 
until its interests were sold to the American 
Steel & Wire Co. in March, 1900. 

In 1876 he leased the Shenango mine and 
organized the Mitchell Mining Co., working 
the mine until 1882, when the property was 
sold to St. Clair Bros. In 1878 he leased the 
National mine from the Lake Superior Iron 
Co. and worked it until 1884. In the fall of 
1885 Mr. Mitchell went into the Gogebic 
Eange and bought a controlling interest in 
Montreal and Section 33 mines. He paid 
$30,000 for test pits on this property and sold 
the Montreal for $100,000 the next year, and 
later the Section 33 mine to good advantage. 

Mr. Mitchell married in February, 1868, 
Miss Elizabeth Penglase, at Humbolt, Mibhi- 
gan. He has 11 children, two of whond^ 
Samuel J. and Arthur G., are boys. Ifir* 
Mitchell was a member of the school hmxA in 
Negaunee for six years. He is predd^M ^ 
the Jackson Iron Co., Kegaunee; ri&i^p^* 
dent of the First National Bank oi Ke^ii^00, 
and director of the First Katioi^it jj^yok ^ 
Escanaba; president of tl^e Mt^^l H^il^ 
ship Co. line of ore camerii ft^ JtS^ 
Ohio; president of the Kegntl^p^ee %' 
Street Eailway Co* and M^&e^t 5 
He belongs to the F. &r A. 3if» 




MEK OF PROGRESS. 




LJEUT. WM. HENRY THIELMAN. 

THIELMAN, LIEUT. WM. HENRY. 
William Henry Thielman, junior member of 
the firm of Armstrong-Thielman Lumber 
Company, operating in South Lake Linden, 
Calumet and Hancock, was born in Detroit, 
Michigan, July 12, 1866. His father, Chris- 
topher Thielman, came to the copper country 
in 1858 and his grandfather was a native of 
France, who was killed while fighting under 
Napoleon against the Russian invasion. 

The family moved to Rockland, Ontona- 
gon County, where the boy attended school 
during the winter, and from the time he 
was 7 years of age, worked around the mine 
during the summer, his first employment 
being picking out small pieces of copper ore 
from the rock pile. When young Thielman 
reached his 13th year he had to go to work 
in earnest and give up his schooling as his 
father, through an endorsement, had lost all 
his earnings. He drove a team, hauling 
wood to the mine until he was 15 years old 
and was then apprenticed to learn the car- 
penter trade. After working at this one 
summer he started out for himself , going to 
Duluth, where^ unable to find work at his 



trade, he went to work loading lumber on ves- 
sels until the following fall, when he started 
for the lumber camps of Cloquet, Wisconsin, 
where he worked during the fall and winter. 
He drifted around considerably after that, in 
a spirit of adventure, going west to the Black 
Hills, and so. on to the Pacific coast, prospect- 
ing for gold. He returned to the copper coun- 
try and for nearly three years worked as car- 
penter at the Copper Falls mine in Keewenaw 
County, after which he again went to Mon- 
tana, expecting to get large wages at his 
trade, but failing to realize his hopes, came 
back to Michigan and was engaged at the 
copper smelters at Lake Linden. For four 
years he conducted a contracting business at 
South Lake Linden under the firm name of 
Kimball and Thielman, and for three winters 
during this partnership he attended the Acad- 
emy of Architecture and Building at St. 
Louis, Missouri, and a business college at 
Valparaiso, Indiana. One year he went to 
Dallas, Texas, to assist in starting a sash and 
blind factory. In 1891 he formed a partner- 
ship with Thomas W. Armstrong, under the 
firm name of the Armstrong-Thielman Lum- 
ber Company, having yards at South Lake 
Linden, Hancock and Calumet. 

When the Spanish- American war broke out 
in 1898, Mr. Thielman, as first lieutenant of 
Company D, Thirty-fourth Michigan Volun- 
teers, served through the war, seeing some of 
the hard fighting in which the famous Michi- 
gan regiment participated around Santiago. 
Previous to this Mr. Thielman was connected 
with the militia of this state by enlisting as a 
private in Company D, Fifth Infantry, Calu- 
met Light Guard. In two years he rose 
from the ranks through the rank of corporal 
until he became second lieutenant. He 
served with this company during the miners' 
strikes at Ironwood and again at Ishpeming 
in 1896. Mr. Thielman belongs to Montrose 
Commandery, Knights Templar, of Calumet, 
and Ahmed Temple, of the Mystic Shrine, at 
Marquette. He is also a member of the 
Knights of Pythias. 



HISTOEIOAL SKETCHES. 



il» 



HALL, ALBEKT JAMES. If there is 
anything that the city of Mason is justly proud 
of it is her well conducted schools, and when- 
ever the question of new building and equip- 
ment for the betterment of the*school has 
arisen Mr. Hall's voice has been raised in its 
favor. He has been a member of the school 
board for the past six years, for two years its 
president, and since then the treasurer. Mr. 
Hall is a Republican and takes an active inter- 
est in the primaries. 

Albert James Hall was born in Mason, 
where he now lives, Feb. 8, 1862. His father, 
Robert Hall, was a cabinet maker and was the 
first undertaker in Mason. The elder Hall an- 
swered Lincoln's call for 800,000 men and 
died in a southern hospital when Albert was 
two years of age. After the death of the 
father the mother kept the little family to- 
gether as best she could by manual labor, and 
when the boy was old enough to help he did 
all he could with the other children toward 
the support of the family. From 9 until 13 
years of age he sawed and split wood and did 
chores for the neighbors, attending school in 
Mason, and working Saturdays and during 
vacations. When he was 13 years old he be- 
gan to work nights, mornings and Saturdays 
for 'N, A. Dunning, a grocer in his native 
town, and received $50 for the first year, at- 
tending public school in the meantime. His 
salary was doubled the next year, and after 
finishing school he continued in the employ 
of Mr. Dunning and remained with him 
ten years, and when, while in his employ, 
the young man attained his majority, his em- 
ployer gave him a one-quarter interest in the 
business as a birthday present. The firm 
gradually commenced to close out their groc- 
ery business and engaged in the drug busi- 
ness, continuing until 1885, when Mr. Hall 
sold out his interest on account of his failing 
health, and moved to a farm near Norfolk, 
Virginia, where he worked outdoors for nearly 
a year and regained his health and strength. 

At the' end of the year on the farm he 
returned to Mason, and was employed in the 
grocery of A. L. Vandercook of that city,^ 
with whom he remained for six months and 




ALBERT JAMBS HALL. 

left to accept a position which had been ten- 
dered him as bookkeeper in the Farmers' 
Bank of Mason. His advance was rapid. 
The next year he was made teller and then 
assistant cashier, and when the hard times 
came to all bankers he was elected to his pres- 
ent position, that of cashier. He married 
Miss Katie E. Smith, of Mason, in 1883, and 
her death occurred in 1892. In 1895 he mar- 
ried Mrs. Ada A. Cook, daughter of Simon 
Rockham, of Leslie. Mr. Hall has two chil- 
dren, Winnie the eldest attends school in 
Mason and Horace A. lives at home, being 
as yet too youthful to commence his studies. 
Mr. Hall has been treasurer of the city of 
Mason for two terms. He is a director in the 
Farmers' Bank of Mason, and is also pro- 
prietor of the Mason Cold Storage plant at 
Mason, Michigan, engaged in buying and 
storing eggs and butter. He is a Mason, also a 
member of the Independent Order of Fores- 
ters, the Royal Arcanum and the Knights of 
the Maccabees, He takes an active interest in 
church matters, being a member of the First 
Baptist Church of Mason, and has been for the 
past 14 years superintendent of the Stinda^r 
school of that church. He is also chainuan of 
the finance comniittee. He is ready at ott ti^m 
to promote any scheme for the betteirme^t of 
the city in which he was bom and wh^p© |i# 
now holds such an honored position ill 90dE^. 



SM 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




ALBERT BARNES SIMONSON, M. D. 

SIMONSOK, ALBERT BARNES, M. D. 
All the large mining companies engaged in 
operating through the copper country have 
in their employ many thousands of men, and 
in order to properly care for the health of 
these employees, employ skilled and practiced 
physicians and surgeons. The employees and 
their families of the Calumet & Hecla Min- 
ing Company are divided into three divisions, 
and Dr. Albert Barnes Simonson, of Calumet, 
has charge of the South Hecla division, and 
has under his medical care over 3,000 people. 

The Simonson family came to Michigan in 
1843, from Roxburj^, New York, where Al- 
vin Simonson, the father of Dr. Simonson, 
had for his schoolboy friend the late Jay 
Gould. When the family came to this state 
they settled on a farm near Birmingham, 
Oakland county, where, October 31, 1857, 
Albert Barnes Simonson was born. The boy 
first attended the district school, and later the 
Birmingham High School, until 1874, when 
he became a student at the Michigan Agricul- 
tural College at Lansing until 1877. He 
worked his own way through college and 
taught school during his vacation periods, 



earning enough to pay his own tuition, as his 
parents were unable to assist him. The end 
of the first term he had to walk all the way 
back to his home in Rochester, as he did not 
have enough money to pay his fare. The 
last year of his college term he decided to 
take up the study of medicine. He had $300 
from his mother's estate, so he entered the 
office of Dr. D. O. Earrand, of Detroit, and 
read medicine for a year, teaching school dur- 
ing the summer months and entering the 
University of Michigan the next year, where 
he took a year's tuition, and then, just before 
vacation, he was tendered and accepted the 
position of bookkeeper for the Mining Cop- 
per Company, on Isle Royale, at a salary 
which enabled him to complete his education. 
He remained with this company for two 
years, the first winter being the longest he 
had ever spent, as the island was without mail 
for a period of six months, and had no con- 
nection with the outside world. At the con- 
clusion of his two years spent on Isle Royal, 
he returned to his studies at the U. of M. and 
remained there during the fall of 1881 and 
winter of 1882. The following spring he 
accepted the appointment of assistant house 
physician at Harper Hospital, in Detroit. He 
graduated from the Detroit Medical College 
in that city in 1883, and then, in the June 
following, went to the Upper Peninsula as 
assistant physician to Dr. F. E. Fletcher, 
at Lake Linden. In 1885 Dr. Simonson 
was appointed physician for the South 
Hecla branch of the Calumet & Hecla 
hospital, and he still acts in that capacity. 
While with the Mining Copper Company 
on Isle Royale, Dr. Simonson was super- 
visor, postmaster, township treasurer, super- 
intendent of schools, and, in fact, looked after 
all the political offices in the township. He 
married, in 1893, Miss Elizabeth M. Evans, 
daughter of William Evans, superintendent 
of smelters for the Boston & Montana Cop- 
per Company, at Great Falls, Montana. 

Dr. Simonson is a member of the Phi Delta 
Theta society of the U. of M., and he also 
belongs to the Knights of the Maccabees. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



346 



HANDY, HON. SHERMAN T. Sher- 
man T. Handy, of Crystal Ealls, Michigan, 
lias gained considerable renown in this State 
as a prosecuting attorney of nnusual ability 
and as one of the youngest members of the 
Michigan Legislature. 

He was born in Morpeth, Ontario, Canada, 
April 3, 1867, on a farm, and when he 
reached the proper age he attended the pub- 
lic school near his home during the winter 
months and in 1880 entered the llidgetown 
Collegiate Institute. His college year was 
one of privation, as the money he possessed to 
pay his way through the term was earned by 
him during the summer, and he made it go 
as tf ar as possible by renting a small room 
and boarding himself. By continuing this 
method of working during the summer 
months and attending school in winter he 
graduated from the Stratford University in 
1889. After leaving college he then went to 
work on the farm the following summer and 
in the fall, with some assistance from home 
he entered the Law Department of the TJni- 
versity of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1889 
and graduated from there with the class of 
'91. In February of the following year, Mr. 
Handy started practicing law at Crystal Falls, 
Michigan, with W. F. Cairns, under the firm 
name of Cairns & Handy, and in July of that 
year he bought out Mr. Cairns' interest and 
practiced alone until June 1, 1895, when a 
partnership with Fred H. Abbott was formed, 
which continued until October, 1897, since 
which time Mr. Handy has been practicing 
alone. 

In 1894 Mr. Handy was elected circuit 
court commissioner, and he was elected to 
the office of prosecuting attorney in 1896. 
It was while in this office that he prosecuted 
Peter Bons, the noted criminal who is now 
serving a life sentence in Marquette for hav- 
ing murdered Miss Pearl Morrison of Crystal 
Falls on July 26, 1897. This was considered 
one of the most outrageous crimes ever com- 
mitted in Michigan and a recent writer has 
classed Bons as being one of the worst crim- 
inals in America. 




HON. SHERMAN T. HANDY. 

In 1898 Mr. Handy was again nominated 
for prosecuting attorney of Iron County. 
The Legislative Convention of Dickinson Dis- 
trict, after being in session for several days, 
had been unable to agree upon a candidate, 
and at last they came to an agreement and a 
unanimous nomination was tendered to Mr. 
Handy, who accepted, and at the same tipae 
being obliged to decline the renomination for 
prosecuting attorney. Mr. Handy was elected 
on the Republican ticket for the House from 
Dickinson district, sessions of 1899-'00. 

December 31, 1895, Mr. Handy marrifiii 
Miss Leora A. Anderson, daughter of Kev. 
D. R Anderson, at Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. 
He has one child, Theodore A. Handy, thre^ 
years old. 

Mr. Handy 's earliest ambition was to be a 
lawyer. He has been gifted with rare powers 
as a speaker, and when the specific tax bill, 
putting a tax of two cents on every ton of 
iron, passed the House, one of the most forc- 
ible and convincing arguments deliyered ia 
the House during that session was macte Jby 
Kepresentative Handy in opposition to ^^ 
tax. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




HON. ALFRED CRUSE. 

CRUSE, HON. ALFRED. Mayor Alfred 
Cruse of Iron Mountain, Michigan, and who 
also acts as postmaster of that place, was bom 
February 1, 1848, in Cornwall, England. 
His father, William Cruse, and his ancestors 
as far back as the family can be traced, were 
all miners in Cornwall. Mr. Cruse's educa- 
tion was commenced in the l^ational School, 
about two miles from his home, but when he 
was 10 years of age his parents were no longer 
able to pay for the lad's tuition, so he was 
sent home, and put to work on a farm at eight 
cents per day. The following year he was 
raised to 12 cents. When only 12 years of 
age he went into the Kit Hill copper mine, 
together with his brother, and earned 30 shil- 
lings a month. He remained at tjiis labor 
for three years, and toward the latter part of 
this period was earning two-thirds of a man's 
pay. The two brothers then took what is 
a "tribute job" at the Homebush mine, work- 
ing gratis for the first ten weeks and then get- 
ting one^third of the product of the mine. 
Young Cruse attended night school for four 
nights every week for as many years, and in 
1866 started for America. There were ten 



people in the little party and all the funds 
M'^ere merged into a general fund and divided 
equally among them. The party come west 
to Michigan, and when they reached Detroit 
their money was exhausted and they had to 
travel on their baggage to Ontonagon. They 
invested all the money they had left, $1.60, 
in crackers, butter and dried herring, which 
kept them from hunger until they were one 
day out from Ontonagon, where they got one 
meal on credit. There was not a penny in 
the party when they reached their destina- 
tion, and the tug that took passengers ashore 
'there demanded fifty cents each. A hotel 
man Avho knew some of the relatives of the 
party made the necessary advance. 

Mr. Cruse then found employment at the 
Ridge mine and then on the Pennsylvania 
mine, where he worked until spring, when 
the company failed and the employees were 
left unpaid for their winter's work. He then 
found work on the Central mine, where he 
remained for four years. The first air drill 
ever put in operation was introduced on this 
property and Mr. Cruse was the first oper- 
ator. From the Central he went to the Al- 
louez inine and in 1872 became a delivery 
clerk in Frank & Frued's store at Eagle River, 
Michigan. The following year he bought out 
the meat and provision department of this 
firm and operated the same for nearly three 
years. He then, in company with Charles 
Eriggs, of Calumet, built and opened markets 
at Central and Delaware mines. He sold out 
all his interests in 1887 and moved to Iron 
Mountain, where he opened a market at the 
Chapin mine, which he continued to manage 
until May 20, 1897, when he was appointed 
postmaster and sold out his interests in Janu- 
ary, 1899. 

Mr. Cruse is a Republican. He was alder- 
man of the city of Iron Mountain 189 5-' 96; 
treasurer 1897, and elected mayor in 1898. 
He is a director in the First National Bank 
of Iron Mountain. Mr. Cruse married in 
1869 Miss Mary S. Jackson at Central Mine, 
Michigan. He has four children. Mr. Cruse 
is a Mason of high standing. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



347 



AUSTIN, EDWAED. Althoiigh at pres- 
ent residing in Marshall in the discharge of 
his duties as Clerk of Calhoun County, Mr. 
Austin's residence and home is in the city of 
Battle Creek. He is a native of Ontario Coun- 
ty, N. Y., where he was born April 8th, 1861, 
removing with his parents to Michigan in the 
spring of 1866, and locating upon a farm near 
the city of Battle Creek. Mr. Austin enjoyed 
the usual country school advantages available 
to a farmer boy until fifteen years of age, when 
he entered the Battle Creek High School, 
graduating therefrom in 1879. He then en- 
tered the literary department of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, and attended the University 
nearly two years with the class of 1883, being 
obliged to give up his studies on account of a 
sun-stroke received while in the harvest field 
during his summer vacation the previous year. 
January 3rd, 1883, Mr. Austin was married 
to Elnora Fuller, of Battle Creek, who with 
their three children, Ethel L., aged 14; Clarke, 
aged 12, and Marjorie, aged 9, respectively, 
make up their present family. Upon leaving 
school Mr. Austin soon commenced the world 
for himself, in the way of handling stock and 
running a dairy farm, which business he still 
delights in, priding himself as being one of 
the oldest dairymen connected with the city 
of Battle Creek. Mr. Austin has always been 
friendly to fraternal organizations, and has 
always taken a very active part in the organiza- 
tion of the Farmers' Alliance and Patrons of 
Industry, having represented them in their 
State meetings several times. At the present 
time he is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
being a Knights Templar and a member of 
Marshall Commandery, No. 17, also a member 
of the Knights of the Maccabees and of the 
Modern Woodmen of America. In 1894 Mr. 
Austin, in order that his family might enjoy 
the privileges of the graded schools, built a 
residence with all the modern improvements 
near the Union School building in the city of 
Battle Creek and removed his family thereto, 
expecting to enjoy the advantages connected 
with the city surroundings. 




EDWARD AUSTIN. 

In politics Mr. Austin has always been of 
Democratic faith, but at the same time was 
never ready to affiliate with the Democratic 
party until 1896, when the party for the first 
time for several years adopted the principles 
of reform for which he had been working 
since 1878, "Free Coinage of Gold and Silver 
at 16 to 1.'' Mr. Austin was elected Township 
Clerk when 21 years of age and afterwards to 
all the minor oflices of the township ; he was 
a delegate from the Farmers' Alliance to St. 
Louis in 1892, when the People's party was 
organized, was a delegate at large to the 
Omaha convention in 1892, when James B. 
Weaver was nominated for President, and a 
delegate from the third district to St. Louis 
convention in 1896, when Bryan was endoi^ed, 
and was one of Michigan's five delegates that' 
stood for Bryan from the beginning. In 1896 
he was elected County Clerk of Calhoun 
County and re-elected in 1898, being the only 
Democrat on the ticket elected. Mr. Amtin 
does not believe in life tenure in office, there- 
fore is willing to retire into private lif e^ When 
that time comes it is his intention to interest 
himself in the stock business. 



WEN OF PEOGEESS. 




FRANK H. LATTA. 

LATTA, FEANK H. The little town of 
Lewiston, N, Y., situated on the Magara 
Eiver, is where Mr. Latta first saw the light, 
July 18th, 1851. His father, Alfred Latta, 
was a native of New York and moved with his 
family to Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1853. Mr. 
Latta received his early education at the pub- 
lic schools of Kalamazoo and at the Battle 
Creek High School, from which he graduated 
in the spring of 1873. He also attended 
Olivet College during one year. After leaving 
school he went to Chicago, remaining there 
two years. Upon returning to Battle Creek 
in the spring of 1875, he at once opened a 
repository for the sale of carriages and farm 
implements, which business he conducted suc- 
cessfully and continuously until the winter of 
1898-99, when, in order to give his individual 
attention to his official duties, he disposed of 
the business of which he had been the origin- 
ator and sole manager for nearly a quainter of 
a century. 

Aside from his business career Mr. Latta has 
manifested his public spirit in many enter- 
prises affecting the welfare and prosperity 
of his city, and has found a congenial field in 
politics, in which he has been especially .active 



although not to a degree that might be termed 
"offensive partisanship." Being a staunch 
Eepublican, he has always subordinated per- 
sonal preferences or prejudices to the good of 
his party. He has done veteran service as 
chairman of the county committee of Calhoun 
County and of the city committee of Battle 
Creek, serving therein four and eight years, 
respectively. He has never aspired to political 
office,. although frequently urged to offer his 
candidacy. He has always felt that he could 
do more effective service in behalf of his party 
as a private in the ranks than if handicapped 
by official position. He does not by any means 
confine himself to local politics, but takes an 
interest in national and state affairs, always 
attending the state conventions and nearly 
always as a delegate. One year as an alderman 
of his ward is the only elective political office 
that he ever held. 

Mr. Latta has taken no small interest in mili- 
tary affairs. He was for four years aide on Gov. 
Rich's staff, with the rank of colonel, and while 
serving was instrumental in obtaining the ac- 
ceptance of the local military company into 
the state service as Co. L, the quota of state 
troops being otherwise full at the time. The 
credit of the formation of this company is 
largely due to Mr. Latta. It is composed of 
the very best young men in the city and ranks 
with the best in the enrollment of the state 
troops. During the Spanish war, Mr. Latta 
devoted both time and money in enlisting re- 
cruits, personally conducting one squad to 
Island Lake. He was a member of the Execu- 
tive Board of the State Agricultural Society 
for eight years, is president of the local branch 
of the Standard Building and Loan Associa- 
tion of Detroit, and also a member of the Bat- 
tle Creek Board of Trade. In 1898 his busi- 
ness ability and his party fealty were recog- 
nized by President McKinley by his appoint- 
ment as postmaster at Battle Creek, in which 
position he is doing a service to the public and 
an honor to himself. 

Mr. Latta's church connections are Presby- 
terian. His society connections are Masonic, 
including the Knights Templar, Knights of 
Pythias and Elks. Miss Kittie Upton, daugh- 
ter of Stephen Upton, a well known citizen and 
manufacturer of Battle Creek, became Mrs. 
Latta jSTovember 10, 1882. They have one 
daughter, aged thirteen years. 



HISTQEICAL SKETCHES. 



84» 



CUTLEK,FEEDJR Fred Cutler, Jr., of 
Ionia, Michigan, was born in that city, Oct. 
2nd, 1862. His father, George Cutler, was 
born in Germanv and came to Michigan, lo- 
cating in Ionia during the building of the D., 
G. H. & M. Kailroad in 1859. He is now one 
of the leading shoe dealers of Ionia. Fred 
Cutler, Jr., began his education in the district 
schools just outside of Ionia, and when he w^as 
twelve years of age in the public schools of 
that city. He then took a commercial course 
at the High School and graduated from there 
at the age of seventeen. After finishing school 
he was offered a position in the dry goods store 
of A. S. Wright of Ionia and started in at a 
salary of $100 a year. After six years in the 
employ of Mr. Wright, being then twenty-one 
years .of age, young Cutler entered the dry 
goods trade on his own account and conducted 
it most successfully for ten years. He was 
then elected City Clerk of Ionia and later sold 
out his business to attend to his new duties. 
He served three years in this capacity. Mr. 
Cutler had become associated with the Knights 
of Pythias. He was appointed Deputy Grand 
Chancellor and State Instructor of the K. of 
P. in 1894 and as such visited 113 K. of P. 
Lodges in that year. Later he was made 
Grand Keeper of Kecords and Seals of that 
fraternity. After leaving this office he re- 
turned to Ionia and established a real estate 
and insurance office, and was prominently 
identified with the progressive element in the 
city of Ionia in an effort to secure new indus- 
tries for that city and build up its commercial 
strength. He is at present a member of the 
city common council. He also acted as secre- 
tary of the Ionia County Agricultural society 
for a period of three years. In 1896 he be- 
came associated with Thomas A. Carten as 
superintendent and bookkeeper of the latter's 
extensive dry goods business in Ionia and as 
such is at present engaged. Mr. Cutler be- 
came identified with the Maccabees in 1885, 
when he joined Wabassis Tent, No. 144. He 
served as Finance Keeper for three years and 
was then made Commander. He was re- 
elected to this office in 1896-^97 and during 
his term as such he increased the membership 




FRED CUTLER, JR. 

from 125 to over 400. He had been a delegate 
to the Great Camp, K. O. T. M., since 1886. 
Mr. Cutler was elected Great Chaplain of the 
Great Camp in 1887 and was re-elected as 
such three terms. In 1896, when the Great 
Executive Committee was enlarged from three 
to five members, Mr. Cutler was elected to the 
committee from the floor of the convention. 
At the recent Great Camp Eeview, held in 
Grand Rapids, he was elected Great Lieuten- 
ant Commander. 

Among the Maccabees, Mr. Cutler enjoys 
the reputation of being one of the most ener- 
getic and hustling members in Michigan. 

During the past tw^o years he was chairman 
and business manager of the building com- 
mittee of Wabassie Tent's new lodge rooms, 
the finest in this state. 

In 1898 Mr. Cutler was nominated for 
County Clerk of Ionia county on the Republi- 
can ticket, but was defeated by a small minor- 
ity. He has served as secretary of the county 
committee for four years. He is Past Com- 
mander of the Knights of Pythias, and a mem- 
ber of the Grand Lodge of that body, and is 
also associated with the I. O. O. F., Elks, F. 
& A. M., Modern Woodmen, Royal Arcanum 
and Court of Honor. 

Mr. Cutler married in 1887 Miss AUie M. 
Ryerson, daughter of Abraham Ryerson of 
Ionia. The marriage took place in that city. 
They have one daughter aged eight yeats^ 



WQ 



MEN OF PEOQEESS. 




WILLIAM BAIiL. 

BALL, AVILLI A M. Mr. Ball is essentially 
a Michigan man and has made his impress 
npon the political, social and industrial life of 
the state. Born in Cayuga County, N. Y., 
April 7th, 1830, his parents, Samuel H., and 
Olive (Seeley) Ball, came to Michigan in 1836 
and located on a farm in the township of Web- 
ster, Washtenaw county. His was the usual 
experience of farmer boys — alternating farm 
work with attendance at the local school. 
When nineteen years of age he became a 
teacher and followed that profession most of 
the time for the next ten years. During the 
time, he took a preparatory course at Albion 
College and entered the literary department of 
the University in 1855, remaining there for 
a year, paying his way by means earned in 
teaching. He was principal of the graded 
schools at Otisco, Ionia county, two fearsy 
1856-'58. In 1857 he invested his savings 
in a farm of 150 acres near the village of Ham- 
burg, in Livingston county, and the next year 
began his career as a farmer. He gradually 
increased his holdings until he was at one time 
operating a farm of 700 acres. For the past 
thirty years he has been a noted breeder of 
American Merino sheep and has a national 



reputation in that line, having beeii one of the 
first to introduce that grade of &heep in the 
west. He was also an early introducer and 
extensive breeder of short horned cattle. He 
has been a director in the State Agricultural 
Society for the past twenty-one years and 
served as president of the society continuously 
for six years. He is chairman of the Finance 
Committee of the society and is well know^n 
throughout the state in connection with his 
work in the society. For the past five years 
Mr. Ball has devoted much of his time to the 
Farmers' Institute work and his aid and ex- 
perience is much sought after by those in 
charge of these gatherings. 

Mr. Ball has, however, made his impress 
upon the civil and political life of the state. 
He served three terms in the State Legislature 
as Eepresentative, during the regular sessions 
of 1865, '67, '81 and the special session of 
1882. At the session of 1881 he was elected 
Speaker pro tern of the House. He was 
elected to the State Senate in 1888 and Avas 
chosen President pro tem at the session of 
1889, and upon the death of Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor McDonald, two months after the session 
began, he became President of the Senate and 
Acting Lieutenant-Governor. In 1890 he was 
the Eepublican candidate for Congress from 
the sixth district, but was defeated by the nar- 
row margin of 500 votes. He was a member of 
the Board of Control of the Industrial School 
for Boys at Lansing, 1885-88. Mr. Ball be- 
longs to the Masonic fraternity, including the 
Howell Commandery, Knights Templar, to 
the order of Oddfellows, including the Can- 
tonment and to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fra- 
ternity of the University. .Miss Catherine 
Powers, daughter of David B. Powers of Ham- 
burg, became Mrs. Ball in 1858. Their family 
numbers one son and four daughters— Erwin, 
a farmer near Hamburg and a graduate of the 
State Agricultural College; Sarah, wife of L. 
A. Saunders, a merchant at Hamburg; Inlia 
A., at home; Kate, wife of Henry M. Queal, a 
farmer near Hamburg; Alice H., wife of 
Henry M. Osborn, a railroad employe residing 
at Grayling. The girls are all graduates of the 
State Normal School at Ypsilanti. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



851 



ALWARD, DENNIS ELDRED. Mr. Al- 
ward is a product of the excellent county of 
Berrien, having been born at Niles, January 
26th, 1859, his father, Cyrus M. Alward hav- 
ing been a well known attorney at that place. 
Dennis E. attended school in Niles, graduating 
from the Niles High School in 1876, and then . 
entered the literary department of the Michi- 
gan University but soon left to teach school. 
In 1878, in company with Martin E. Brown, 
he started the little daily paper at Battle 
Creek called the Battle Creek Moon. The 
enterprise, at first regarded as a doubtful ven- 
ture, proved a gratifying success and became 
a valuable property. In 1880 he sold his in- 
terest to his partner and purchased the Clare 
Press, then a struggling Republican weekly, in 
a new county, which paper he published suc- 
cessfully for ten years. He received a prac- 
tical introduction to state politics by his ap- 
pointment as clerk to the Senate Committee 
on Railroads, at the Legislative Session of 
1887. His aptness for that class of work and 
his careful attention to details, aided not a 
little by a personal popularity that is an insep- 
arable part of his make-up, advanced him to 
the position of Assistant Secretary of the Sen- 
ate in 1889, and to the full secretaryship in 
'93 and '95. He served as secretary of the 
Republican State Central Committee under 
Senator McMillan in the campaign of 1894, 
and was continued in that position under 
Chairman Dexter M. Ferry in the memorable 
campaign of 1896. Retiring from the secre- 
taryship in 1 898 he was recalled to it in 1900, 
being named therefor by Chairman Diekema 
and unanimously elected by the State Central 
Committee. 

During the Fifty-fourth Congress he served 
as superintendent of the House document 
room at Washington and upon the organiza- 
tion of the Fifty-fifth Congress was promoted 
to the very responsible position of Reading 
Clerk in the National House of Representa- 
tives, to which position he was unanimously 
re-elected in 1899. In 1900 he was selected 




DENNIS ELDRED ALWARD. 

by the National Republican Committee as 
Reading Clerk of the Philadelphia Conven- 
tion which nominated McKinley and Roose- 
velt. Mr. Alward's political work has not 
been confined to the secretary's chair and the 
reader's desk, but he has been a popular and 
effective speaker in the state campaigns for 
several years, and at Washington there is no 
more popular ofiicer of either House than 
^^Dennie" Alward. 

Mr. Alward has been identified with the 
business and municipal interests of the city 
which is his home. He was clerk of the 
village and mayor of the young city. He was 
also a member of the local school board and 
secretary of the county board of school exam- 
iners. He is still a newspaper man and owns 
a large farm near Clare. 

He is an enthusiastic Mason, an Oddfellow, 
a Knights of Pythias and holds membership 
also in the A. O. IJ. W., Modern Woodmen 
and Loyal Guard. In the first four orders 
named he has passed the chairs. 

Miss Etta Stress, daughter of Peter Stress 
of Battle Creek, became Mrs. Alward Nov. 
11th, 1879. Hazel E., born in 1890, is their 
only child. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




HON. FREDERICK OWEN CLARK. 

CLARK, HOIs^. FREDERICK OWE^L 
Frederick Owen Clark, a staid and respected 
resident of Marquette, and senior member of 
the law firm of Clark & Pearl of that city, 
was born at Girard, Erie County, Pennsyl- 
vania, December 18, 1843. 

His father, John B. Clark, was a tanner 
and dealer in leather, and evidently intended 
that his son should follow the same trade. 
Although the boy was sent to the schools 
of Girard and fitted for a course in 
Hamilton College, he spent two hours each 
day in the tannery, and all day Saturday. He 
was a hard worker and devoted much time to 
his studies, the result being that when he be- 
came 18 years of age, his health, sapped by 
overstudy, commenced to fail him and instead 
of attending college he remained at home 
and read law. He decided to go North, 
selecting Northern Michigan as a health re- 
sort. In June, 1862, he left home and 
went to ]\[arquette, where he sought em- 
ployment without success. His money grad- 
ually dwindled away, and when his capital 
had been reduced to 50 cents he found work 
with a survey gang laying the state road to 
Escanaba. 



The following years he was put on the 
regular survey corps as transit man, and the 
next year had charge of the engineer work 
and superintended the earthworks for the new 
iron ore docks. Then he took charge of the 
engineer work on one division of the road and 
taught school during the winters at Harvey, 
Michigan. 

Mr. Clark remained Avith the C. & N. W. 
R. R. on construction work until 1865, and 
left to become general engineer for the Iron 
Cliff Company at Ishpeming, surveying, etc. 
He platted and laid out the present city of 
Negaunee, working at this line of work until 
1869, when he resumed the study of law, and 
in 1871 he was admitted to practice before 
eJudge Goodmn at Menominee, Michigan. 
Mr. Clark opened a law ofiice at Escanaba and 
practiced there until July, 1876, when he re- 
moved to Marquette. 

Frederick O. Clark married in 1877 Miss 
Ellen J., daughter of Hon. Amos Harlow, of 
Marquette. Two children have come to 
Mr. and Mrs. Clark. The name Alden is a 
family name, as Mr. Clark is a direct descend- 
ant on his mother's side of John Alden. His 
great grandmother was Sally Alden. Mr. 
Clark's great grandfather was Major Daniel 
Clark of Revolutionary fame. 

Mr. Clark was a member of the legisla- 
tive session of 1875-76, being nominated by 
the Republican party and endorsed by the 
Democrats. He received every vote cast. He 
was the first clerk of Escanaba, Michigan, and 
president of Escanaba in 1871. He has held 
the following offices: Prosecuting attorney 
Delta County, 1873; mayor of Marquette, 
1886-87; member of School Board, Mar- 
quette, ten years, and president of board two 
years; alderman, 1896-97-98; member of 
Upper Peninsula Prison Board, appointed by 
Governor Pingree for six years in 1896. 

His other business interests are: Preside<nt 
of the Marquette City & Presque Isle Elec- 
tric Railway, and stockholder and director in 
the Barassa Iron Mining Company of Ne- 
gaunee. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



353 



HON. ROBERT BRADLEY WEBB. 



WEBB, HON. ROBERT BRADLEY. 
Robert Bradley Webb started in life as a 
farmer's bov and by his own efforts has be- 
come identified with some of the largest min- 
ing properties on the Upper Peninsula, and 
one of the largest industries in Crystal Falls, 
where he now resides. Other honors have 
been won by him, for in 1896-'97 he was the 
mayor of the little city in which he lives. 

He was born March 9, 1852, at Waukegan, 
Illinois. His father was Ira P. Webb, a 
farmer, and the Webb family came originally 
to the west from Utica, Herkimer County, 
N^ew York State. Young Webb attended the 
district schools near his farm home, as usual 
with farmers' children working during the 
summer on the farm, and getting what school- 
ing he could during the winter. 

When he was 16 years of age, the boy at- 
tended the High School at Waukegan for 
two terms, working during vacations in order 
to help toward paying for his own education. 
After leaving the High School he became a 
hotel clerk at Woodstock, Illinois, at a sal- 
ary of $15 per month, and at this employment 
he worked for one year, and the year follow- 
ing became manager of a railroad eating 
house at Howard Junction. After this he 
came to Michigan, and became a clerk in the 
general store operated by the Furnace Com- 
pany at Menominee, Michigan, where he re- 
ceived a salary of $75 a month. He saved 
his money and in two years started in the 
mercantile business on his own account in 
Hainesville, Illinois. Fire was responsible 
for the failure of this attempt, for a year 
later the store and stock were destroyed and 



young Webb was left without a cent. He 
managed to pull himself together, and the next 
year he was established in the live stock busi- 
ness, and for two years he bought and ship. 
ped live stock for the Chicago market. He 
then accepted a position in the general store 
of I. R. Lyon at Waukegan, Illinois, where 
he worked for two years, and then became a 
traveling man, selling tobacco and spices for 
James G. Flint, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 
His territory was through Wisconsin, Iowa 
and Michigan and for one year he engaged 
in this business. During his travels in this 
capacity he had an opportunity of studying 
the country, and obtaining a knowledge of 
the different industries then being developed. 
He then interested himself in some iron min- 
ing properties located in Wisconsin and some 
located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 
and in 1882 he purchased a hardware stock 
in Florence, Wisconsin, which he operated in 
connection with his mining operations. He 
closed out his interests in 1889 and removed 
to Minneapolis, where he entered the real 
estate field and brokerage business. He han- 
dled many big deals and bought prospective 
realty, and when in 1893 the boom broke he 
found himself owner of much real estate that 
was unsalable. In 1892 he had become inter- 
ested in the Crystal Falls Hardware Com- 
pany, and in 1894 he moved to Crystal Falls, 
Michigan. Mr. Webb gives most of his at- 
tention to managing the hardware <5ompany. 
He married in 1877 at Watertown, New York, 
Miss Estelle J. Todd, and has five childrto. 
Mr. Webb is a member of Wauk^aB* Coiaa* 
mandery, No. 12, Knights Tempkr.r 



lis* 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




HON. JAY ABBL. HUBBBLL. 

HUBBELL, mm, JAY ABEL. Eight 
years in Congress has made the name of Jay 
Abel Hubbell a familiar one, not only in 
Michigan alone, but throughout the country. 
He is the so-called father of the Michigan 
College of Mines, located at Houghton, 
Michigan, and to his efforts in securing the 
appropriation and locating the college, Hough- 
ton is indebted for the presence of that struc- 
ture today. 

He was born in Avon, Michigan, Septem- 
ber 15, 1829. His father, Samuel S. Hub- 
bell, was one of the earlier settlers of Oakland 
county, Michigan, locating there in 1820. 
The family originally came from Connecti- 
cut. 

Young Hubbell attended the district 
schools near Avon, Mich., during tlie winter 
terms until he reached his eighteenth year, 
when he was sent to the Rochester Academy, 
at Rochester, Michigan, for two years, and 
later took two more years at the High School 
of Romeo. 

In the fall of 1850 he found himself in a 
position financially to enter the literary de- 
partment of the University of Michigan, 
where he spent three years, graduating in 



1853. He then went back to school teach- 
ing in order to finish paying for his education 
and in the meantime read law in the office of 
Judge Manning, of Pontiac, Mich. Getting 
a few dollars ahead he then entered as a stu- 
dent into the law office of Howard, Bishop & 
Holdbrook at Detroit, and in 1855 he was ad- 
mitted for practice by the Supreme Court. 
Having at last become an attorney, the young 
man then started for the Upper Peninsula and 
landed at Ontonagon, June 17, 1855, with as 
much as $3 capital to supplement his educa- 
tion and experience. He was even in debt to 
the captain of the steamer which brought him 
up from Sault Ste. Marie. Shortly after his 
arrival in his new field, he went into partner- 
ship with A. H. Ilanscomb and for the next 
three years his practice was exceedingh^ lim- 
ited. In 1860 he moved to Houghton, Mich- 
igan, where he now resides, and soon estab- 
lished a paying practice. In 1857 he was 
elected district attorney for the Upper Penin- 
sula, being re-elected in 1859. In 1861, a 
year after his removal to Houghton, he was 
elected prosecuting attorney for Houghton 
county. 

Mr. Hubbell was state commissioner to the 
Centennial exposition. He made his first ap- 
pearance in national politics as a member of 
the Forty-third Congress, and was re-elected 
to the succeeding four houses. He served on 
the committee on ways and means, and during 
the larger part of the time was chairman of 
the national Republican congressional com- 
mittee. He was a delegat-e from Houghton 
County and when he laid down the gavel of 
the temporary chairman, figured prominently 
in the delegation and on the floor. He was 
elected Circuit Judge of the twelfth judicial 
circuit, and retired January 1, 1900. Judge 
Hubbell married in 1861 Miss Florence Doo- 
little at Ontonagon, and has two children, 
Florence, the wife of Lessing Karger, of 
Houghton, and Blanche D., wife of Lieut. H. 
E. Smith, IT. S. A. Judge Hubbell is a Mason, 
and a member of Montrose Commandery, K. 
T., of Calumet. He also belongs to Saladin 
Temple, A. A. O. S., and Grand Rapids Con- 
sistory. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



355 



BELL, GEORGE METHIAS. Dr. Bell 
represents both English and German blood. 
His father, Joseph Bell, came from England 
and settled in Halton County, Ontario, in 
1836, where the son was born September 19th, 
1848. His mother, Marv Green Teetzel, was 
of German descent. The family moved to St. 
Joseph, Michigan, in 1862. The father died 
in 1887 and the mother in 1896, at Benton 
Harbor, Dr. Bell's present residence. The 
son enjoyed ordinary school advantages both at 
Milton, Canada, and at St. Joseph. At the age 
of eighteen, a point at which young men com- 
mence to feel the importance of a fixed pur- 
pose in life and if left to their own choice, 
usually choose well, by the law of natural 
selection, Dr. Bell found his inspiration to- 
ward the medical profession. He entered the 
drug store of Gates & Bell, in Benton Har- 
bor, where for four years he did the work of 
both clerk and student during the summer 
months, and pursued his studies in the medical 
department of the University during the win- 
ter, from which he graduated in 1870. He at 
once opened an office in Benton Harbor but 
took a winter course at the Chicago Medical 
College, receiving its diploma in the spring 
of 1871. The ensuing three years were de- 
voted to his home practice, but with a view to 
the best preparation possible for his life work, 
he took a special course in anatomy and sur- 
gery at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, 
^^Tew York, graduating therefrom under the 
distinguished surgeon. Dr. Hamilton, in 1875, 
and has since pursued his home practice unin- 
terruptedly. While Dr. Bell is not technically 
a specialist, he has yet developed a special apt- 
ness in the treatment of the diseases of chil- 
dren. In his strictly professional work, he has 
been for fourteen years TJ. S. examining sur- 
geon for the pension district which embraces 
his home, has been health officer of Benton 
Harbor for years, is a surgeon for the Cincin- 
nati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company 
and is medical examiner for the Knights of 
Honor and the Home Forum. 

As an all around, enterprising citizen. Dr. 
Bell was one of the three who built the beau- 
tiful opera house (known as the Bell Opera 




GEORGE METHIAS BELL. 

House) at Benton Harbor, costing about 
$30,000, with a seating capacity of 1,500, and 
which is strictly up to date in all its appoint- 
ments. He is senior member of the drug firm 
of George M. Bell & Co., is a stockholder in 
the Wolverine Sugar Beet Company, a 
director and stockholder in the Benton Har- 
bor and St. Joseph Eailway Company, and 
also of the West Michigan Nursery Company, 
all of Benton Harbor. Politically, Dr. Bell is 
an independent, reserving the right at all 
times to use his best judgment both as to men 
and measures, independently of party obliga- 
tion. His independence, however, has not 
excluded him wholly from the public service, 
he having served the city as an alderman. He 
is a member of the Berrien County Medical 
Society, of the International Association of 
Eailway Surgeons, and of the Big Four Sur- 
geons Association. He is also a member of the 
Masonic fraternity, including the Knights 
Templar, of the Knights of Honor, the Macca- 
bees and the Home Forum. A conservative 
disposition and an affable temperament and 
manner, help to make up the worthy gentle- 
man in the person of Dr. Bell. ^Miss Anna 
Nichols, daughter of Mr. Edgar Nichols of 
Benton Harbor, became^ Mrs. Bell May 15, 
1876. Their one son, John Bell Jr., was first 
sergeant in Company I, Thirty-third Michi- 
gan Infantry, during the Spanish- Americai* 
war, and saw service in Cuba. 



356 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




JULIUS SOLON BARBER. 

BARBER, JULIUS SOLON. A native 
of Vermont, born at Benson, April 6th, 1824, 
Mr. Barber came to Michigan with his parents 
in the fall of 1 838. His father, Daniel Bar- 
ber, became a member of a company or colony 
of Congregationalists that purchased a large 
tract of land in Eaton county and located the 
hamlet of Vermontville, founding there a 
church and school. His school training up to 
the time of his leaving Vermont (fourteen 
years of age) was limited. He attended the 
winter school in Vermontville until twenty 
years old, working on the farm during the 
summer. As a reminiscence, Mr. Barber re- 
lates having earned his first dollar, while in 
Vermont, reading the '^Scottish Chiefs'' ro- 
mance to some tailors while they stitched away 
on their board. In 1845 he walked from Ver- 
montville into Calhoun county, some forty 
miles, to work in the harvest field, and in 1840 
walked to Bellevue on a like mission, walking 
home in each case. He taught a winter 
school, 1846-7, near Vermontville, at $12 per 
month and "board round." In the spring of 
1847 with. $150 saved he went to Whitehall, 
N. Y., and clerked in a store until the winter 
of 1849. He then joined a party of thirty-six 



others in fitting out an expedition to go to 
California. In January, 1849, they signed 
articles of agreement, each contributing the 
sum of $500 to a common fund. They bought 
a bark which they loaded with provisions and 
general supplies and sailed from New York 
by way of Cape Horn January 25th, 1849. 
Upon reaching Sacramento they made a 
division of the cargo into two parts for 18 and 
19 members of the party, respectively. Mr. 
Barber was one of the 19, and with one other 
had charge of the business interests at Sacra- 
mento, the others going into the mines. The 
said business was thus continued until a fiood 
overwhelmed the city. In 1854 he returned 
east, married and spent some time prospecting 
in Wisconsin, finally settling down in Cold- 
water, Mich., in November, 1854, where his 
home has since been. He opened a general 
store there in 1855 and has been identified 
almost continuously with that line of business, 
and generally with the growth and prosperity 
of the town. During his early residence in 
Coldwater, he read law for two years in the 
office of Charles Upson, with the object simply 
of better fitting himself for a business career. 
Mr. Barber has been a prominent figure in 
political, business and social circles in Cold- 
water during the almost half century of his 
]-esidence there. He represented his district 
in the State Legislature in 1867 and also in 
the Constitutional Convention of that year, 
was postmaster at Coldwater eight years, un- 
der Presidents Grant and Hayes, was Assessor 
of Internal Be venue for the Second Michigaii 
District during President Grant's first term, 
and served two terms as alderman of the city. 
He is at present a member of the mercantile 
firm of J. B. Branch & Co., of Coldwater, has 
been a stockholder and director in the South- 
ern Michigan National Bank since its organ- 
ization and is a stockholder in two or three 
manufacturing enterprises in Coldwater. Dur- 
ing his residence in Whitehall, N. Y., and 
Sacramento, Cal., Mr. Barber formed an 
acquaintance with Mrs. Emeline Baker, who 
became Mrs. Barber in 1854. They have two 
daughters, Gertrude E., wife of Homer G. 
Barber, a merchant and banker of Vermont- 
ville, and Elena C, wife of Lester E. Kose, 
president of the Southern Michigan National 
Bank, Coldwater. Mr. Barber's hope for the 
welfare of the country is in its churches and 
schools. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



357 



MAIN, JOHN T. One of the best known 
physicians of Central Michigan is Dr. John T. 
Main, of Jackson, who bears the same name 
as the state from which he sprung, he having 
been born at Albion, Kennebec county, 
Maine, May 25th, 1831. The family were 
early settlers in that state. John Main, the 
first of the family in America, was born in 
England in 1618 and settled at York (then 
called Agamentacus) in the present state of 
Maine, in 1640. Part of the family still re- 
sides upon the old homestead, which has been 
continuously occupied by them since 1640, 
without a single break, the present mansion 
being not more than one hundred feet from 
where the first house was built. Josiah Main, 
father of Dr. John T., was born on the old 
homestead in 1788. The mother of Dr. Main 
was Mary Marble, a native of New Hamp- 
shire, born in 1797, her father having been an 
old sea captain. 

The father of Dr. Main was a farmer and 
to this occupation the son had his early train- 
ing. The father, however, had been a teacher 
in early life and the son by the law of heredity, 
manifested an aptness for study, which re- 
ceived due encouragement from the father, 
who became his teacher, adding his careful 
training to that of the public school, from 
which Dr. Main entered the Academy at 
China, Me. Dr. Main prosecuted his medical 
studies at the Medical College at Castleton, 
Vt., under Dr. Cory don L. Ford, who was 
afterwards called to the chair of anatomy at 
the University of Michigan. Dr. Ford was 
conceded to have been one of the best teachers 
in his special branch of medical science, that 
the world has ever know^n. Dr. Main also 
studied at Harvard, where he was a private 
tutor not connected with the faculty but un- 




JOHN T. MAIN. 

der them, and was for some years a private 
pupil of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes at Har- 
vard, giving special attention to the study of 
microscopy. Before studying medicine he had 
been a teacher and had worked as a civil en- 
gineer. Dr. Main rendered service to his state 
as a member of the House of Representatives 
early in the 1850 decade and again in the six- 
ties. He also served the country as assistant 
surgeon of the Second Maine Eegiment during 
the Civil War. He is at present a member of 
the Board of Health of Jackson and a medical 
director in the city hospital. For its scientific 
value also, he is prosecuting systematically his 
investigations in bacteriology. Dr. Main wa?? 
married in 1858 at Thomaston, Me., to Miss 
Ferolin M. Williams, daughter of Peter Wil- 
liams of that place. Their only son, Fred- 
erick W., is associated in practice with his 
father at Jackson. Dr. Main is a member of 
the Masonic fraternity, in which he was at one 
time quite active, and is also a member ol the 
O. A. E. 



858 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




REUBEN HATCH. 

HATCH, KETJBEN. Among the men 
whom New England has furnished to the great 
North West, is Judge Keuben Hatch, who 
was horn October 11th, 1847, in the town of 
Alstead, New Hampshire. His ancestors 
came to America from England in 1630 and 
settled in Massachusetts. His father, also 
named Eeuben, was a learned and able divine 
of the Congregational church, and during a 
long and useful life ministered to congrega- 
tions in Windom, Vt. ; York, Ohio; Union 
City, Mich., and other places. He was mar- 
ried December 16th, 1846, at Hudson, Ohio, 
to Miss Elmira Kilbourne, a native of Hud- 
son, bv whom he had six children, of whom 
Reuben, Jr., was the eldest. After her death 
in 1858, he married Miss Marion J. Pierce, 
the fruit of this marriage being four children. 
Mr. Hatch has reached the ripe age of eighty- 
five years and makes his home in Oberlin, 
Ohio, where he and his estimablis wife 
are widely and favorably known. He was 
one of the leading spirits and founders 
of Olivet College, Michigan, and also 
assisted in planting a similar institution 
at Benzonia, and notwithstanding his ad- 
vanced age, still takes an active interest in re- 



ligious and educational work. Reuben 
Hatch, Jr., the leading facts in whose early 
life connect themselves with his father's his- 
tory, attended the schools in the different 
places where his father held pastorates and 
also received instruction in the higher 
branches of learning, under his parent's im- 
mediate tutelage. He began reading law at 
Traverse City, Mich., at the age of twenty and 
on May 12th, 1870, he was admitted to the 
bar. He established a successful practice at 
Traverse City, and in that brief time (1875) 
had attained a position that gave him the nom- 
ination for Circuit eTudge, to which office he 
was elected at the April election, 1875. He 
continued on the bench during the regular 
term of six years, and upon his retirement 
therefrom resumed practice at Traverse City. 
In 1888 he removed to Grand Rapids, where 
he has since conducted a large and lucrative 
practice in the State and Federal Courts. For 
a short time he was associated in practice with 
Hon. Harry P. Jewell, and later formed a co- 
partnership with Hugh E. Wilson, which still 
continues. 

The professional career of Judge Hatch has 
been highly creditable and he holds a con- 
spicuous place among the leading attorneys, 
in a city noted for the high order of its legal 
talent. The honorable distinction acquired at 
the bar, was not dimmed by his judicial career. 
As a judge he presided with dignity and his 
impartiality in dispensing justice made him 
popular with both lawyers and litigants. But 
few of his decisions were reversed by the 
Supreme Court, and in one case that went 
to the Supreme Court of the United States, 
the decision of the Michigan Court was re- 
versed and Judge Hatch's ruling affirmed. 
Mr. Hatch was deputy collector of Internal 
Revenue at Traverse City at the age of 21, 
and was also township clerk of Traverse 
Township. He was treasurer of the building 
committee in charge of the construction and 
furnishing of the Northern Michigan Asylum 
at Traverse City, disbursing nearly $1,000,- 
000 for that purpose. He is a member of both 
the National and State Bar Associations, and 
of the Hesperus Club of Grand Rapids. Politi- 
cally he is a Republican, and in religion, an 
attendant upon the Congregational church, of 
which his wife, formerly Mrs. Esther II. 
Sprague Day, to whom he was married in 
1872, is a member. 



HISTORICAL SKETCJIES. 



359 



CUERY, SOLOMON S. Mr. Curry ranks 
as one of the pioneers of the Lake Superior re- 
gion. He was born in Canada, June 12th, 
1840, and received his education there. In 
early manhood he came to Upper Michigan 
and after a year spent in the copper country, 
he went to Marquette and entered the employ 
of the Sault Ste. Marie Canal Company. 
After a year or more in this service he engaged 
in mineral exploration, mining and contract- 
ing and has ever since been identified with the 
mining interests of the Upper Peninsula. He 
came to Marquette when the boundaries of 
the township were the same as those of the 
present county of Marquette, and when the 
city of that name was not yet in embryo. 
With the county now crowding 40,000 in pop- 
ulation, with sixteen organized townships 
and three cities with an aggregate of over 
25,000 population, some idea may be formed 
of the growth of the community in which Mr. 
Curry has been an active member. He has 
been a prime factor in the development of the 
mining industry not only in Marquette but in 
other counties. Removing to Ironwood, in 
Gogebic county, his interests have centered 
in that locality. He has been for many years 
president of the Metropolitan Iron & Land 
Company, which operated the IS^orrie group 
of mines in the city of Ironwood, and it is 
owing to his efforts almost entirely, that these 
mines owe their present state of development, 
and have become the largest producers and 
shippers of iron ore of any mines in the world. 
The city of Ironwood, which has become one 
of the principal cities of the Upper Peninsula, 
owes its growth largely to his characteristic 
push, energy and enthusiasm. He is the 
earnest promoter of all enterprises that affect 
favorably the interests of the community in 
which he resides, as well as the advocate and 
promoter of all public and benevolent enter- 
prises that affect the people generally, as will 
be cheerfully testified to by the unanimous 
voice of his neighbors. Mr. Curry's work and 
influence are not confined to the Upper Penin- 
sula, but extend to other states, where his repu- 
tation as a mining expert is known and where 




SOLOMON S. CURRY. 

his counsel is sought. His knowledge and 
aptness in this line is such that his favorable 
judgment is an assurance of success in any 
undertaking. 

In politics, Mr. Curry is of the Democratic 
faith. In 1874 he was elected a representative 
in the State Legislature, serving during the 
session of 1875, and has held many local offices 
of responsibility and trust, in all of which he 
has acquitted himself with satisfaction to the 
public and honor to himself. In 1896 he 
was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor on 
the Democratic ticket, headed by George L. 
Yaple for Governor, and although he ran 
largely ahead of his ticket in the Upper Penin- 
sula, where he was so Avell and favorably 
known, the ticket was unable to stem the Re- 
publican current. In 1898 he was nominated 
for representative in Congress from the 
Twelfth Congressional district, which com- 
prises the Upper Peninsula, but his candidacy 
was of necessity hopeless, in a district hailing 
an adverse partisan majority of over 10,000. 

On IvTovember 13th, 1867, Mr. Curry was 
united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Stoupe 
of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and to them have 
been born two sons and two daughters, George 
A. and Anna Belle, who are living, and libbie 
May and John Carlisle, who have died. 



sm 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




WILLIAM PAUL PRESTON. 

PRESTON, WILLIAM PAUL. John 
and Paul Preston settled in Maryland in 
1670, and the Preston family in that beauti- 
ful State owes its existence there to these two 
early settlers. The family originally came 
from England. 

William Paul Preston is a descendant of 
this family. He was born in the little town 
of Chesterton, Maryland, January 19, 1845, 
where, until his fifteenth year, he attended 
the village school and was then sent to school 
in Wilmington, Delaware. When the Civil 
War broke out, and with patriotic enthusiasm, 
all the youths of the country were answering 
President Lincoln^s call for troops, a com- 
pany of Zouaves was organized in Wilming- 
ton. The martial music and the attractive 
uniforms, together with the military fever 
that sAvept over the country, had its effect on 
young Preston, and in August, 1861, al- 
though onl^r a school boy, he enlisted^ The 
recruits of the new company were sent on to 
Staten Island, in Ifew York bay, and the 
company was organized as Company D, 
Fifty-third New York, and mustered into the 
service October 12, 1861, so at the age of 17 
Mr. Preston was a soldier. The company was 



sent to the front at once, and under General 
Bumsides it participated in the expedition 
against Hatteras Inlet, in North Carolina, see- 
ing some sharp and severe service. March 
25, 1862, after a year spent in the south, a 
year fraught with battles and excitement, the 
regiment was mustered out. Young Preston, 
however, had become attached to the life of a 
soldier, so he immediately re-enlisted, this time 
in the Fourth Delaware Regiment, and he 
served until the close of the war, participating 
in many important battles. After the close 
of the war he enlisted in the regular army at 
Indianapolis, Indiana, and was assigned to the 
Forty-third regiment. In 1867 he was made 
first sergeant of Co. B, and remained as such 
until the re-organization of the army in 1869. 
His company was stationed at Mackinac 
Island, where the regiment was finally mus- 
tered out. 

The year following his retirement from 
the service he married Miss Mary Overall, at 
Mackinac, and after the demise of his first 
wife he again married in 1885, Miss Emma 
Snell, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Today 
Mr. Preston is one of the largest property- 
owners on Mackinac Island, having several 
large business stores, and conducting an ex- 
tensive real estate business. He was presi- 
dent of the village for 13 years, a member 
of the Board of Supervisors, and for eight 
years, 1879 to 1887, chairman of the Board of 
Supervisors of Mackinac County. In 1891-92 
he was the sergeant-at-arms of the House of 
Representatives, and a delegate to the Na- 
tional Democratic Convention of 1884. He 
was also a member of the Democratic State 
Central Committee from 1880 to 1884. He 
represented his county at the State Board of 
Equalization in 1891-96. He has been a can- 
didate for the Legislature on the Democratic 
ticket three times, but the district is largely 
Republican, which readily accounts for his 
non-election. He was a delegate to the Demo- 
cratic National Convention in 1890. Mr. 
Preston has five children: Henry W., aged 
28, is with Hoyt & Company, wholesale gro- 
cers, at Chicago; Joseph R., aged 18, attends 
school in that city, and Cassius F., aged 15, 
Susie R., aged 13, and Margarette, aged 10, 
are living at home and attending school in 
Mackinac Island. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



861 



WESSELIUS, SYBRANT. Few names 
are more familiar to the people of Michigan 
today than that of the tall ex-senator from the 
Sixteenth district. Born poor, he has by his 
own energy and industry, gained prominence 
in politics, and a lasting reputation as one of 
the brainy and broad guaged citizens of West- 
ern Michigan. 

His parents came from the Netherlands in 
1847 and settled in Grand Rapids, where 
Sy brant was born on June 8, 1859. He was 
given a common school education until 15 
years old, when he went to work in a trunk 
factory. He clung to his studies, however and 
by a strict economizing of his funds he was 
able to enter Kalamazoo College, where he 
graduated with the degree of A. B. 

After graduating he went to teaching 
school, and continued at it while he quietly 
but energetically studied law and fitted him- 
self for the profession which has been so kind 
to him. Endowed by nature with a mental 
capacity in keeping with his great physique, he 
was not satisfied with learning just enough to 
enable him to pass the ordinary legal exami- 
nation, and when he finally went to the circuit 
court as a candidate for admission to the 
bar, he passed with a standing most creditable, 
entered at once upon the practice of his pro- 
fession, and soon built up a large and remun- 
erative practice, which has steadily increased. 

In politics Mr. Wesselius has been promin- 
ent in his part of the State for many years. 
His prominence among the large Holland pop- 
ulation of the city and district gave him a 
large personal following, and his personal 
qualifications, his oratory, and his marked 
ability made him in great demand in the coun- 
cils of the Republican party. In 1890, as the 
Republican candidate for mayor of Grand 
Rapids against heavy odds, he made a most 
remarkable run and succeeded in holding the 
vote down so close that several of the city 
wards were saved in the aldermanic battles. 
In 1889 he was elected a member of the State 
Senate, and served as chairman of the com- 
mittee on constitutional amendments and fed- 
eral relations, and as member of the judiciary 
committee, and was recognized as one of the 
strong men of that session. 

Mr. Wesselius took an active part in the 
campaign which gave Hazen S. Pingree the 
nomination for governor in 1896, and his rela- 
tions with the governor were so intimate that 
he was given the title of "Governor of West 
Michigan." Immediately after the inaugura- 




SYBRANT WESSELIUS. 

tion of Governor Pingree, the office of rail- 
road commissioner was tendered him, to accept 
which he would not do without giving all his 
attention to its duties, involving a sacrifice of 
his private practice, which he could not well 
afford. But he was induced to become a mem- 
ber of the state's official family, and for two 
years made one of the most aggressive com- 
missioners of railroads the State ever had. 
He not only personally outlined and designed 
the system of taxation evolved in the Atkin- 
son bill (Session 1897), but directed most of 
the work of Governor Pingree himself for 
equal taxation. 

He resumed the practice of his profession at 
the end of his term. One of the earliest sym- 
pathizers in the cause of the Boers in South 
Africa, he assisted in raising the large sums of 
money sent from Western Michigan, helped 
to awaken interest in many of the large cities, 
helped to bring accredited representatives of 
the South African republic to his own city, 
and was personally responsible for the start- 
ing of the League of Boer Sympathizers in 
the United States. 

Very happily married and with a happy 
home, Mr. Wesselius enjoys life, enjoys his 
friends and they enjoy him. He gives a por- 
tion of his time to literary work, and is a mem- 
ber of the Elks, Oddfellows and Knights of 
Pythias. 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




WELLINGTON R. BURT. 



BURT, WELLINGTONS^ E. Wellington 
R. Burt is a descendant of Henry Burt, who 
came from England to Massachusetts in 1838, 
making his home in Springfield, where he 
spent a long and useful life and raised a large 
family. His descendants may be found in 
AVestern Massachusetts, while many more fol- 
lowed the course of empire and will be found 
in the new States of the West. 

Wellington R. Burt was born in the State 
of New York in 1831; in 1838 his father, 
Luther Burt, moved with his family on to a 
farm in Jackson county, Michigan, where he 
died five years later. Wellington R. Burt 
lived on this farm until he was twenty years 
old, receiving such education as could be 
obtained at the district schools in that locality, 
together with one year at Albion Seminary 
and one year at the Michigan Central College, 
which was located at Spring Arbor at that 
time. He taught school two years in Indian- 
apolis, Ind., and spent three years in a trip 



around the w^orld, stopping at Australia, New^ 
Zealand, Van Diemans Land, Sandwich 
Islands, South and Central America. On his 
return he went into the pine woods on Pine 
River, Gratiot county, at $13 per month. In 
1860 he was married to Sarah Torrans and 
settled in East Saginaw and engaged in the 
lumber business, which he has continued until 
now. 

He has taken an active interest in the busi- 
ness of the valley. Was elected mayor, both 
parties endorsing him and receiving every vote 
of the city. Ran for governor in 1888; was 
elected State Senator in 1892; organized and 
was president of the Home National Bank for 
thirteen years; was president of the Michigan 
Salt Association for fourteen years. 

Wellington R. Burt has two sons and four 
daughters; the sons are in active business and 
the daughters- husbands are in high walks of 
business and professional life. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



363 




WILLIAM ALDEN SMITH. 



SMITH, WILLIAM ALDEN. William 
Alden Smith, of Grand Rapids, Mich., wan 
born in Dowagiac, Cass county, Mich., May 
12, 1859. Attended the public schools at that 
place and at twelve years of age removed with 
his parents in 1872 to Grand Rapids, where he 
has since resided. As a boy he was engaged in 
many youthful enterprises, selling newspapers 
and being messenger in the Western Union 
Telegraph Ofiice. In 1879 he was appointed a 
messenger in the House of Representatives of 
the State Legislature by Hon. John T. Rich, 
Speaker. He studied law and was admitted to 
the bar in 1882 and has since been engaged in 
the practice of his profession in Grand Rapids. 
He was active and influential in securing the 
nomination of Hon. Cyrus G. Luce for gov- 
ernor in 1886 and during Governor Luce's 
term, without solicitation on his own part, he 



was appointed State Game and Fish Warden, 
holding the position four years, and resigning 
on the incoming of the Democratic administra- 
tion in 1891. In 1887 Mr. Smith was ap- 
pointed General Attorney for the Chicago & 
West Michigan and the Detroit, Grand Rapids 
& Western Railroads. During the campaign '■ 
in 1886 he stumped the state in behalf of the 
Republicans, doing efficient work. Congress- 
man Smith is a self-made man and by taking 
advantage of his opportunities has made him- 
self what he is. In politics, he is a staunch 
Republican. In 1894 he Avas elected a mem- 
ber of the Fifty-fourth Congress of the United 
States; was appointed by Speaker Thomas B. 
Reed on the Committee of Foreign Affairs, 
being placed fifth upon a committee of four- 
teen. He served on the same committee dur^ 
ing the Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses. 



mm^ 



MEN OF PROGEESS. 




HENRY M. ROSE. 



EOSE, HE'iSTEY M. Michigan newspaper 
men find recognition at Washington. Mr. 
Eose entered upon his duties as Chief Clerk of 
the Senate April 1st, 1900, Dennis E. Alward 
having been Eeading Clerk of the House for 
several years, both being newspaper men. 

Mr. Eose's father was Eev. Henry A. Eose, 
a Baptist minister, who \vas descended from 
the Eose family of Massachusetts and Ehode 
Island. His mother, Zaida A. Martin, was a 
descendant of John Martin of Massachusetts. 
The son was born in Hornellsville, N. Y., 
March 16th, 1858. The family located in St. 
Johns, Mich., in 1865, where Henry M. en- 
joyed the advantages of the public schools for 
the next ten years. In 1875 he took a prepara- 
tory course at the Fenton Seminary and in the 
fall of 1876 entered the Baptist College at 
Kalamazoo. His eyesight becoming impaired, 
he left college in the junior year and was for a 
time clerk in a store at Hasty, Gratiot county, 
and also taught a district school. In 1879 he 
bought a small job printing outfit and soon 
after joined forces with Otis Fuller in the 
publication of the Clinton Eepublican at St. 
Johns. Selling out his interest in 1880 he pur- 



chased the Palladium at Benton Harbor, 
which he managed for nearly four years. In 
September, 1884, he became a reporter on the 
Morning Telegram at Grand Eapids and five 
months later became its city editor, so continu- 
ing until 1887, when he accepted a like posi- 
tion on the Evening Leader, which he held for 
three years, and thereafter was assistant man- 
aging editor of the Grand Eapids Democrat 
for a year. Coming to Detroit, he was state 
editor of the Detroit Journal for a year, at the 
end of which time he returned to Grand Eap- 
ids. During the legislative sessions of 1887 
and 1889 he was engrossing clerk of the House 
of Eepresentatives at Lansing. 

Mr. Eose was quite actively connected with 
Eepublican politics in (irand Eapids and Kent 
county during his residence there and was 
chairman of the Eepublican county committee 
during one campaign. His experience as a 
newspaper worker and in his clerical capacity 
at Lansing gave him a wide acquaintance in 
the state and he can probably call as many of 
the political workers by name as anyone in the 
state. This fitted him peculiarly for the part 
which he took in 'behalf of Mr. Burrows' elec- 
tion to the LT. S. Senate, he having had charge 
of that gentleman's "literary bureau," so 
called, and having otherwise actively assisted 
his canvass, which commended him to the new 
Senator as his confidential clerk and then as 
clerk of his committee, from which he earned 
his promotion as Chief Clerk of the Senate. 
In his new position Mr. Eose receives a salary 
of $3,000 a year. His duties consist in general 
in keeping track of the thousand and one de- 
tails of legislation that must be kept in order 
and ready for presentation before the Senate 
at the proper moment. 

Mr. Eose is a member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity, of the Knights of Pythias, and of the 
Michigan (Eepublican) Club. It is said of 
him that he "loves his friends," and while it is 
not presumed that he has any enemies, yet if 
he has, no doubt in obedience to the Golden 
Eule, he loves them also. He married Miss 
Gertrude Miley, daughter of John Miley of 
Niles, Oct. 7, 1880. They have one son, 
Willis S. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



365 



WRIGHT, HAMILTOI^ M. Hamilton 
M. Wright, the present Judge of Probate of 
Bay county, was born in J^ew Orleans, La., 
Oct. 26th, 1852. His father, Hamilton M. 
AVright, was a native of Dutchess county, Nv 
Y., but went south when a young man and 
became a cotton broker and merchant in New 
Orleans. His mother, Virginia Iluckins, was 
a native of the State of Virginia, When the 
Civil War broke out the mother and children 
went to Geneva, Switzerland. The son had 
some early school training in New Orleans and 
he attended school in Geneva until he was 
seventeen. He then went to Cheltenham, 
England, where he pursued a preparatory 
course for college. He graduated from the 
literary department of Yale College in 1875, 
taking third place in a class of 150. That same 
year he entered the Yale law school and gradu- 
ated from the law department with the class 
of 1877, taking first rank in his class and re- 
ceiving the Jewell gold medal for excellence 
of scholarship. After graduation he looked 
around for a favorable spot in which to settle 
and was induced by favorable reports to come 
to Bay City. He moved there in September, 
1877, and practiced his profession for some 
years. His wife having owned a tract of land 
in the eastern part of Bay City, he interested 
himself in its improvement, building a house 
for a family residence in 1879 and selling city 
lots to workingmen and others at low rates and 
on long time, encouraging settlement. He 
also built houses and sold them on easy terms. 
In all he built thirty-six houses, which added 
greatly to the valuation of the city. He never 
had a law-suit with a tenant or foreclosed a 
mortgage or contract. In April, 1881, he was 
elected alderman and was re-elected for sev- 
eral terms. In 1882 he was elected to the 
State Legislature and re-elected in 1884. At 
the expiration of his term as alderman in 1887 
he was nominated for mayor and elected by a 
plurality of 804 votes. He was again elected 
mayor in 1895. In 1888 Mr. Wright was 
elected Judge of Probate for Bay county, on 
the Democratic ticket. When elected. Judge 
Wright determined to fill the trust, to which 




HAMILTON M. WRIGHT. 

he has always given personal attention. His 
aim has always been to have all matter? 
promptly attended to and large savings have 
been effected to estates and to creditors, by so 
doing. Judge Wright's administration of the 
office during his first term was so satisfactory 
that he was elected for a second term in 1892 
and for a third term in 1896. 

The wife of Judge Wright was formerly 
Miss Anne Dana, daughter of Wm. D. and 
Anne E. Fitzhugh of Livingstone county, 'N. 
Y., to whom he was married J^ov. 30th, 1871. 
They have had eight children, seven living, 
the oldest of whom, Anne Virginia, is the wife 
of Dr. Thos. L. Kane (a nephew of Dr. Eane 
of Arctic fame), residing in McKean county, 
Pa. Hamilton, Jr., is an attorney at Los An- 
geles, Cal. The others reside at home, except 
one. Arch. V. K., who is a railroad employe. 
Judge Wright is of Scotch-English descent 
and Mrs. Wright is connected with the Oar- 
rolls of Maryland and the Van Kensselaers of 
l^Tew York. 

The congressional nomination for the Tenth 
district on the Democratic ticket was tendered 
Mr. Wright unanimously in 1888, but -wa$ 
declined for personal reasons. 



MEN. OF PEOQKESS. 




GERRIT JOHN DIEKEMA. 

DIEKEMA, GEKEIT JOHN. Some time 
in the 1840 decade, there came to Michigan a 
gentleman from Holland known as the Rev. 
A. C. Van Eaalte. His mission was to select 
a location on which to plant a colony of his 
countrymen. He selected a place in Ottawa 
county at a point then known as Black Lake, 
where has since grown up, the city of Holland. 
The emigrants who came with Rev. VanRaalte 
and their descendants, through the proverbial 
industry and frugality of that people, have 
acquired competence and comparative wealth. 
Through their virtues, also, their method, and 
their love of learning, they hold a position of 
influence in the social, political and business 
affairs of western Michigan. Mr. Diekema 
is a product of the stock planted by the Rev. 
Van Raalte and it is no flattery to say that he 
represents the highest type, intellectually, 
socially and morally, of that worthy people. 
His parents were natives of Holland, while Mr. 
Diekema himself was born in the Michigan 
Holland in 1859. His education was most 
systematic and thorough, conformably to the 
method of his people. A Holland colony 
would not be such without its college, and 
Hope College sprang up with the colony in 



Michigan. To this college Mr. Diekema passed 
from the primary schools, graduating in 1881. 
He began reading law and in due course en- 
tered the law department of the University, 
from which he graduated in 1885 and was ad- 
mitted to practice at Ann Arbor. He at once 
opened an office in Holland, with every ele- 
ment that invites success, which has come to 
him abundantly. Self-reliant, he has never 
formed a professional partnership and his law^ 
practice has been interrupted only by the de- 
mands that his felloAv citizens have made upon 
him for official service. In the year 1884 he 
was elected a representative in the State Legis- 
lature and Avas tliree times re-elected, serving 
four terms in all. At the session of 1887 he 
was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and 
in 1889, when but thirty years old, was chosen 
Speaker of the house. Tn 1893 he w^as the 
Republican candidate for Attorney-General of 
the State, and although leading the head of his 
ticket by fully one thousand votes, he suffered 
defeat on account of the fusion of the Demo- 
cratic and People's parties on Attorney-Gen- 
eral at that election. In 1894 he was ap- 
pointed a member of the commission Avith 
Mark S. Bre^ver of Pontiac and Edwin F. 
Conely of Detroit, charged with the w^ork of 
preparing the forms for acts designed as gen- 
eral laAvs for the incorporation of cities and vil- 
lages. The w^ork of the commission, of which 
he v/as president, Avas reported to the Legisla- 
ture at the session of 1895 and is represented 
by the present statutes on the subject. Mr. 
Diekema was mayor of Holland in 1895 and 
has been for many years a member of the city 
Board of Education and one of the trustees of 
Hope College, and is also a member of the 
Board of Directors of the State Pioneer Soci- 
ety. In his religious connection he is a mem- 
ber of the Reformed Church in America (for- 
merly Dutch Reformed). At the Republican 
State Convention held in Detroit May 3rd 
last, he was unanimously chosen to the respon- 
sible position of Chairman of the State Central 
Committee. Miss Mary E. Alcott, a graduate 
of Hope College, became Mrs. Diekema in 
1885. They have four children. Aside from 
his legal business, Mr. Diekema has large bus- 
iness and manufacturing interests at Holland. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



367 



CnrRCHILL, WORTHY L. Though a 
resident of Alpena, Michigan, his enterprises 
have not been confined to that locality. In 
1871: Mr. Churchill became a resident of 
Michigan, engaging in the manufacture of 
lumber in Alpena, where he has since resided. 

A Democrat in politics, he has twice been 
honored by being elected mayor of the city, 
and was chosen in 1875 to represent his dis- 
trict in the State Legislature. 

In 1804 he was unanimously chosen by the 
Tenth Dictrict Democratic Congressional 
Convention as its candidate for Congress, but 
was defeated in the land-slide, it being the 
year when ^^ Donovan of Bay" was the sole 
Michigan Democratic representative in state 
or national affairs. 

In December, 1898, Mr. Churchill, with a 
few friends, organized the Bay City Sugar 
Company and was chosen president and gen- 
eral manager. With the usual energy and 
determination that has won him success, he 
pushed to completion an enormous factory and 
was making sugar in ten months from the or- 
ganization of the company, producing the first 
campaign, seven million pounds white granu- 
lated sugar, giving employment to untold 
numbers of men, women and children culti- 
vating the beet in the fields, and 250 men in 
the factory. The plant is one of the most 
complete and modern in the world. 

He is also president of the Alpena Gas Com- 
pany of Alpena and the senior in the lumber 
firm of W. L. & H. D. Churchill. This firm, 
besides their lumber mills at Alpena and ex- 
tensive interests in that vicinity, are also large 
owners of Canadian timber in the Georgian 
Bay country. 

Mr. Churchill comes of patriotic stock. He 
is a direct descendant of Gen. Lovell of Revo- 
lutionary fame, who Avas known in verse and 
history as the Worthy Lovell from whom he 
was named. His grandfather was Gen. W. L. 




WORTHY L. CHURCHILL. 

Churchill of Batavia, X. Y., well known as 
an officer in the War of 1812. 

His father, J. W. Churchill, a prominent 
attorney in the early history of Illinois and 
member of the first Legislature, practiced 
law and rode the circuit with Lincoln, Doug- 
las, Wentworth and other pioneers of Illinois. 
Mr. Churchill's mother was Delia S. Wilson, 
daughter of Judge I. G. Wilson of Western 
New York, a lady loved by all who knew her. 
She lived to the good old age of 90, passing 
away less than two years ago. 

Mr. Churchill married in Chicago Miss 
Amelia Montgomery, who with their daughter 
Florence, constitute their family. 

He is a staunch Episcopalian, Knights of 
Pythias and Elk, and a lover of good horses, 
which he both raises and drives. He is a very 
busy man, but I learned during my short visit 
with him that he is one who believes it is bet- 
ter to wear out than rust out. That when one 
has been actively engaged in business all his 
life, if blest with health at the age of 50 or 
60, keep on, for if one quits and folds his 
hands waiting for death, he will not wait long. 






MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




GEORGE WILLIAM WEADOCK. 

AVEADOCK, GEOEGE WILLIAM. The 
parents of Mr. Weadock emigrated from Ire- 
land, and settled in St. Mary's, Auglaize 
county, Ohio, where George W. was born 
:Srovember 6th, 1853. The Irish admittedly 
make the best of jurists and the Weadocks 
have contributed their quota to the legal pro- 
fession in Michigan, two brothers of George 
W., Thomas A. E., now of Detroit, and John 
C, of Bay City, being well known lawyers. 
After passing through the primary and high 
schools of his native town in the early seven- 
ties, George W. began reading law with a local 
attorney, which was continued under Hon. 
Isaiah Pillars, Attorney-General of Ohio. He 
then took a course in the law department of 
the University of Michigan, defraying his ex- 
penses by means earned by himself in teach- 
ing. He pursued a further law reading in the 
office of Wilson & Weadock, at Bay City, and 
was admitted to the bar September llth, 1876. 
He began practice in Saginaw and a year later 
became a partner with Hon. Timothy E. 
Tarsney. While the latter represented the 
Saginaw district in Congress (two terms) Mr. 
Weadock had chief .charge of the law business. 
This co-partnership was continued until 1891, 



a period of fourteen years. IVIr. Weadock 
continued the practice alone until 1893, when 
Miles J. Purcell, who had been a student in 
his office, became a partner under the firm 
name of Weadock & Purcell, which is the 
present style. Mr. Weadock is what may be 
termed an all round lawyer, devoting his atten- 
tion to general practice. He has been presi- 
dent of the Bar Association of his county and 
State. With one exception to be noted, he has 
never consented to stand for political office, 
although repeatedly solicited by his party 
friends to do so. He has frequently been 
urged to run for Congress, but his firm con- 
viction is that no man can serve two masters. 
In his profession he is devoted to the interests 
of his clients and feels that he could not do full 
justice to them if aiming to fill the roles both 
of lawyer and politician. This sentiment, how- 
ever, does not bar him from contributing his 
full quota toward the success of his party m its 
campaigns both on the stump and in the way 
of counsel, deeming this an obligation due to 
good citizenship. 

When the two cities of Saginaw and East 
Saginaw were consolidated, Mr. Weadock was 
elected Mayor, serving two terms of one year 
each, 1890-1891. During his terms the duty 
necessarily arose of adjusting the various in- 
terests connected with the union, the successful 
accomplishment of which was largely due to 
the fact that lie insisted that the terms of con- 
solidation should be honorably carried out. 
During his term, also, and upon his insistence, 
an investigation of the affairs of the City 
Clerk and Police Justice and Police Court 
Clerk were ordered, and upon the wholesome 
rule that ^^public office is a public trust,'' al- 
though they were of his own party, he had 
them tried and removed from office when their 
misfeasance Avas established. In religious 
opinion, Mr. Weadock is a Roman Catholic 
and in politics a Democrat. In 1878 he was 
joined in marriage with Miss Anna E. Tars- 
ney, a sister of his then law partner. Nine 
children were the fruit of the union, seven of 
whom are living. The mother died in 1893, 
and in 1896 Mr. Weadock was married to 
Miss Grace M. McTavish, daughter of Archi- 
bald McTavish of Saginaw. Two children are 
the fruit of this union. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



369 



WEADOCK, JOHN OULLEN. Mr. 
Weadock is the youngest of seven sons of 
Louis and Mary CuUen Weadock, who 
migrated from Ireland in 1860 and settled on 
a farm near St. Marys, Ohio, where John C. 
was born February 18, 1860. Of the seven 
brothers three of them chose the legal pro- 
fession and have done honor to the bar in this 
state. John C. obtained his early education 
in the district schools at St. Marys, and after 
his removal to Bay City in November, 1876, 
he had the advantage of the Bay City High 
School, from which he graduated in due 
course. After graduation he spent some time 
in teaching, when he determined to take up 
the study of law, and with that end in view 
he entered the office of his brother, Thos. A. 

E. Weadock, then a successful practitioner at 
Bay City. He was admitted to the bar in 
1881 and in 1886 was married to Miss Helena 

F. Bertch, daughter of Andrew Bertch of 
Lansing. Shortly after his admission to the 
bar he formed a partnership with his brother 
and former preceptor, under the firm name of 
T. A. E. & J. C. Weadock. The partnership 
still continues, although the senior partner 
has been for some years a practitioner in De- 
troit. While still a resident of Bay City, 
Thos. A. E. was elected to Congress (1890) 
and again in 1892, and during his four years 
of service in Washington, the business of the 
firm largely devolved upon the junior partner. 
With characteristic energy and an oppor- 
tunity to develpp, he assumed the additional 
labor thus thrown upon him and in the con- 
duct of the affairs of the firm evinced those 
qualities which have placed him in his present 
standing at the bar, to which but a decade be- 
fore he had been admitted. Personally, Mr. 
Weadock is of strong physique and robust 
health. Socially, while unassuming and re- 
tiring in manner, he is an affable and com- 
panionable gentleman, whose personality in- 
vites the confidence and respect of those with 
whom he comes in contact. In his home life 
he is a good entertainer, is one of the best 
whist players in the city and enjoys the society 




JOHN CULLEN WEADOCK. 

of a large circle of friends whom he has 
worthily won. Politically he has always taken 
an active interest in the political life of his 
city and state. He is a skillful organizer, but 
neA^er stoops to the base in politics, and while 
in ptirti^tm contests he never a.4:s or gives 
quarter, the campaigns in the Tenth Congres- 
sional District which he has conducted have 
been noted alike for their cleanness and 
energy. While he has never been a candidate 
for ofiiice, nor regarded favorably the many 
requests of his party friends to allow the use 
of his name, he was appointed to the office of 
City Attorney in 1887, a position which he 
filled for four years with equal credit to him- 
self and advantage to the service. 

Mr. Weadock his been president of the 
Bay City Club, the leading social organization 
of the city, and National Vice-President of 
the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Michi- 
gan branch of which possesses one of the best 
insurance systems of the order, in the perfect- 
ing of which he has borne an active part. He 
has also served as president of the state or- 
ganization. He is a member of the Elks, and 
Avas Exalted Euler of the Bay City lodge three 
terms. 



870 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




OHARI^ES L. WILSON. 

WILSON, CHAELES L. Charles L. Wil- 
son was born at Warsaw, N. Y., February 1, 
1843. His father, Samuel Wilson, was a 
farmer and of English ancestry. His mother's 
maiden name was Sabrina E. Shaw, of Ver- 
mont extraction. The family moved to Michi- 
gan in 1845, first stopping in Oakland county, 
near Eochester, where they rented a farm for 
a season, then proceeded to Saranac, Ionia 
county, locating on a farm where a portion of 
the village was subsequently platted. The 
father engaged in farming and hotel keeping 
until about three years previous to his death in 
1872. Mrs. Wilson, the mother, is now 89 
years of age. 

The early education of Charles L. was at 
the village schools. He was subsequently eni- 
ployed portions of the time as cabin boy on 
steamers then plying between Graipid Eapids 
and the upper country. From the fall of 1858 
until 1860 he was clerk in a store. After an- 
other winter teim at school he bbtained a 
clerkship with H. Eich & Co., of Ionia, attend- 
ing school during the less busy portion of the 
year. In this way he attended one term at the 
State Normal and one at the Ypsilanti Union 
School. In 1863 he engaged as sutler's clerk 



for D. F. Frazell, then sutler of the Veteran 
Eeserve Corps, stationed near Indianapolis, 
where he superintended the business for sev- 
eral months, until stricken with typhoid pneu- 
monia. Eecovering, he was soon after en- 
gaged as teacher of a district school, using his 
spare time in reading law. In 1865 he entered 
the Law Department of the Michigan Univer- 
sity and graduated with the class of 1867. 
Then for a time he assisted his father in the 
hotel business. In the spring of 1868 he 
began practice in his home town, and was 
elected justice of the peace. He drafted the 
original charter for the incorporation of the 
village, and was subsequently elected village 
clerk, township clerk and president of the vil- 
lage. 

In the fall of 1872 ho formed a co-part- 
nership with Wm. L. Strickland, under the 
linn name of Wilson & Strickland, which 
continued until 1874, when he was elected 
prosecuting attorney, but failed of re-election 
in 1876, the entire Eepublican county ticket 
being elected. While holding the office he 
was in co-partnership with a former school- 
mate, Benj. Vosper, under the firm name of 
Vosper & Wilson, and soon after the expira- 
tion of his term he again opened an ofiice in 
Saranac, where he has continued to reside. 

In 1880 he became a partner with Hon. A. 
B. Morse and the late Attorney-General S. V. 
11. Trowbridge, under name and style of 
Morse, Wilson & Trowbridge, which contin- 
ued until the retirement of Mr. Morse, 
the succeeding firm being Wilson & Trow- 
bridge, which was mutually dissolved about a 
year later, when Mr. Wilson invested quite 
largely in Grand Eapids suburban and city 
property. He moved to that city and engaged 
principally in real estate business with his 
brother, Geo. B. Wilson. He returned to Sar- 
anac two years later, where he has since re- 
sided, leaving his brother to look after the busi- 
ness in the city. 

He was elected Judge of Probate on the 
Democratic-People's-Union Silver ticket, in 
1896, over Grant M. Morse. Mr. Wilson be- 
longs to the Masonic fraternity, being a Past 
Master of the local lodge, a member of Ionia 
Chapter, I^o. 14, and Commandery No. 11. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



371 



EIS, EIGHT KEVEKEND BISHOP 
FKEDERICK. The Right Reverend Bishop 
Frederick Eis, bishop of the diocese of Sault 
Ste. Marie and Marquette is a man of great 
piety and a zealous worker in his sacred call- 
ing. Under his charge the diocese has grown 
and prospered, and Catholicism has advanced 
in strength numerically and otherwise. 

He was bom in Germany and came to 
America when he was 12 years of age, and 
has since resided in the Upper Peninsula of 
Michigan. As a youth, Bishop Eis com- 
menced his studies with Father Fox, one of 
the pioneers of the church in that part of 
Michigan, then located at Rockland. Con- 
tinuing his studies, he then attended the pro- 
vincial seminary at Milwaukee, Wis., where 
he remained for several years and then went 
to Canada to finish his education. 

His education completed, he returned to the 
Upper Peninsula and in the fall of 1870 was 
ordained priest by Bishop Mrak at Marquette. 
Upon his ordination he was given St. Peter's 
parish in that city, a remarkably important 
charge for a young priest. 

After his pastorate there he was given suc- 
cessive charge of a number of important par- 
ishes in the diocese, his longest connection 
with any church being in I^egaunee, where he 
spent 10 fruitful years. He found the parish 
in debt and left it free from incumbrance with 
a good parsonage and a parochial school, 
which had been built during his pastorate. 

Upon the death of Bishop Vertin, Father 
Eis took the position of administrator of the 
diocese, previous to which he spent three 
years at the parish of Crystal Falls, being ap- 
pointed there after his return from a trip to 
the far west for the benefit of his health. 
While there he was dean of Gogebic, Iron 
and Ontonagon counties and was one of 
Bishop Vertin's consulters. For some years 
he held the position of diocesan inspector of 
parochial schools. 

Bishop Eis is the fourth bishop of the dio- 
cese of Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette. The 
diocese was elevated to the bishopric in 1857 




RIGHT REV. BISHOP FREDERICK MS. 

with Fathei Baraga as its first bishop. He 
was succeeded by Bishop Mrak, who resigned 
his holy office after some years service and 
was spared to see two successors don the epis- 
copal robes he laid aside. Upon the resigna- 
tion of Bishop Mrak, Bishop Vertin was ap- 
pointed to the oiRce and held it to his death 
almost 20 years later, when Bishop Eis was 
appointed. His appointment was made in 
Kome from two lists of three names each, sent 
respectively by the priests of the Marquette 
diocese and the prelates of the province of 
Milwaukee. 

Bishop Eis has shown a marked willingness 
to assist all who seek to enter the churchly 
callings, and has rendered assistance to a num- 
ber of young men who aspired to the priest- 
hood. He has also helped no less than ten 
deserving young women to overcome the diffi- 
culties in the road of their becoming mem- 
bers of the Order of St. Joseph. Withal, he 
is a man of modesty and reserve, yet affable 
and easy to approach. Th^ are the quaK- 
ties that have served to make him popular 
wherever he has been stationed and the most 
cordial relations exist between himself md 
every priest under his chaiige. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




ALVA WINSLOW NICHOLS, M. D. 

NICHOLS, ALVA WINSLOW, M. D. 
Dr. Alva Winslow Nichols, Greenville, Mich., 
was born in Cannon township, Kent county, 
this state, in 1848. His father was a school 
teacher and teacher of penmanship, and his 
grandfather. Dr. Jasen Winslow, was one of 
the first physicians to locate in Grand Eapids. 
The family is a Massachusetts family and the 
name one of the oldest in that state. 

Dr. Nichols' early education was received 
in the district schools near his home and in the 
public schools of Grand Rapids. His grand- 
father being a physician, he chose the same 
profession, and commenced reading medicine 
when 15 years old. He also took up the trade 
of a mason, and during the summer months he 
worked as such, being considered a first-class 
workman, especially in lath work and plaster- 
ing. He became a district ^hool teacher for 
three mnters, and in the fall of 1872 entered 
the University of Michigan and graduated 
from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, 
New York City, in 1874. Upon graduating 
he immediately went to Greenville and opened 
an office. Soon after locating there he 
espoused the cause of the "greenbackers" and 
later became a populist. He has been an active 



worker in behalf of the principles of this party, 
and a leading spirit in its organization. 

Dr. Nichols has also engaged in journalism. 
He managed and published the Greenville 
Sentinel and Farmers' Voice from 1889 to 
1893, and for ten years, from 1874 to 1884, 
was the Greenville correspondent for the De- 
troit Evening News. 

Good roads has always been his hobby. It 
was through his efforts in this direction that for 
twenty miles out from Greenville, excellent 
gravel roads lead into the town, greatly bene- 
fiting the farmers who drive in with their farm 
produce, and the town itself which is the po- 
tato center of Michigan. He commenced the 
agitation for gravel roads in 1895, and was in- 
strumental in raising $1,400 from the council 
of Greenville and $4,000 from the farmers, 
and the roads were built in 1895, two months 
after beginning. 

Dr. Nichols has been a member of the 
Greenville school board since 1893 and is at 
present secretary of that body. He has taken 
a great interest in the affairs of the schools 
under his care, and in '93 he commenced the 
agitation for a commercial course in the public 
schools, organizing a movement and estab- 
lishing a system that has been adopted by 
many of the leading cities throughout the 
state of Michigan — the introduction of stenog- 
raphy and typewriting. 

In 1898, Dr. Nichols was a candidate for 
Congress. In 1894 was candidate for gov- 
ernor of the People's party, receiving 32,000 
votes. This year he was elected member of the 
People's party national committee. He has 
been chairman of the State Central Committee 
since 1892. 

Dr. Nichols is a member of the Knights of 
Pythias, the Koyal Arcanum, the Prudent 
Patricians of Pompeii and the Knights of the 
Maccabees. He is a man of strong personality, 
a tireless worker and progressive in every sense 
of the word. He has absolute faith in the 
principles of his political creed and sees in it 
the nucleus of a faith that in the next century 
will be a power in the land, stronger than that 
of any political party today. 

Dr. Nichols was appointed by Governor Be- 
gole trustee of the Michigan Asylum for the 
Insane at Kalamazoo in 1882, serving six 
years, was four years member of Board of Pen- 
sion Examining Surgeons for Montcalm 
county, and has been supervisor of the second 
ward of Greenville ten years. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



3li 



MORRILL, ROLAND. Eruit raising in 
Michigan is an industry favored by the rich 
quality of the soil and exceptional growing 
conditions that has given the state a prom- 
inent place amongst the apple, peach and grape 
producing states of the LTnited States. Such 
associations as the ISTational Association of 
Nurserymen and the Michigan State Horti- 
cultural Society bring growers into close con- 
tact with each other in the exchange of views 
resulting from the annual and semi-annual 
meetings of the societies, vast benefit is de- 
rived and much is done toward the scientific 
methods best adapted for fruit raising and 
care of orchards. 

Roland Morrill, of Benton Harbor, is con- 
sidered one of the highest authorities on mat- 
ters relating to fruit culture as well as one 
of the most successful friiit growers in the 
State of Michigan. His farm near Benton 
Harbor is of 300 acres, rich and productive 
soil and of this he has 160 acres devoted to 
the raising of fruit and a nursery of young 
fruit trees. He is one of the largest fruit 
growers in the section. 

Roland Morrill was born in Branch County, 
Michigan, November 9, 1852, and educated 
in the High School of Grand Rapids. His 
early life was full of hard knocks, as his father 
died before he reached his fourteenth year. 
The boy was left in charge of a guardian and 
was sent to Missouri, where he spent three long 
years splitting rails, cutting brushwood, dig- 
ging stumps and other hard labor incidental to 
clearing and getting in working condition a 
farm in a new country. After this unprofit- 
able employment he returned to Michigan and 
entered the employ of Warren H. Pearl, work- 
ing on the latter's farm near Benton Harbor. 
By living economically a few years he was 
able to buy a small farm and afterwards added 




ROLrAND MORRILL. 

to the same until he now has the largest peach 
farm in the fruit belt. Mr. Morrill is a rela- 
tive of the late Senator Justin Morrill and of 
Lot Morrill, the first Republican governor of 
Maine. 

Mr. Morrill married, August 25, 1874, 
Miss Ella Pearl, daughter of Warren H. and 
Minerva Pearl, upon whose fruit farm he 
first learned his present business. He has two 
children, the son, Warren Pearl Morrill, is 
a graduate from Ann Arbor, class of '98, and 
engaged in the fruit growing business with 
his father. 

Mr. Morrill is also a member of the firm 
of Morrill & Morley, manufacturers of spray* 
ing apparatuses and atomizers, and is at pres- 
ent one of the heaviest stockholders in the 
Tw^n City Telephone Company, of which he 
is also one of the organizers. In 1896 he was 
superintendent of the poor. He is a member 
of the Knights of Honor and the National 
Association of Nurserymen and the MitJhigiEm 
State Horticultural Society, of which he was 
president for seven years. 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




LOYAL EDWIN KNAPPEN. 

KNAPPEN, LOYAL EDWIN. Mr. 
Knappen was born at Hastings, Michigan, 
January 27, 1854. His father was Edwin 
Knappen, a merchant of that place, who died 
a few months after his son's birth; his mother, 
whose maiden name was Sarah M. Nevins, is 
still living at Hastings. Both his parents were 
born in Vermont, his grandfather's family 
coming to that state from Connecticut, where, 
during the War of the Eevolution, his grand- 
father, Eev. Mason Knappen, was born a 
member of Judea Society, which, with two 
other societies in Titchfield county, were or- 
ganized into the town of Washington in honor 
of the then Commander-in-Chief of the Amer- 
ican forces. 

Mr. Knappen attended the Hastings schools 
until fifteen years of age, when he entei*ed the 
University of Michigan, from which he was 
graduated in 1873 with the degree of, A. B., 
receiving the degree of M. A. in course three 
years later. After six months as assistant 
principal of the High School at Hastings, he 
entered the office of Hon. James A. Sweezey 
at Hastings as a law student, and was admitted 
to practice in August, 1875, becoming a part- 
ner Avith Mr. Sweezey and so continuing until 



1878. Upon the dissolution of this co-partner- 
ship he formed a like connection with his 
brother, Charles M. Knappen, which con- 
tinued until 1883, when he associated with 
Christopher H. Van Arman as Knappen & 
Van Arman. Kemoving to Grand Kapids in 
1888, he entered into association with William 
J. Stuart, forming, the law firm of Stuart, 
Knappen & Van Arman, which conducted 
offices both at Grand Kapids and Hastings un- 
til Mr. Van Arman's death in 1890, soon after 
which the Hastings office was closed. The 
firm of Stuart & Knappen continued until 
1893, when the latter became a member of 
the firm of Taggart, Knappen & Denison, 
which continued six years. In 1899 he en- 
tered into partnership with Mr. George P. 
Wanty, under the firm name of Wanty & 
Knappen, this relation continuing until Mr. 
Wanty's accession to the Federal bench, when 
he associated with Jacob Kleinhans, under the 
name of Knappen & Kleinhans. 

His firm is one of the most prominent in 
Western Michigan, its practice being largely 
in the representation of more important busi- 
ness interests and in the heavier litigation in 
the Federal and higher State courts. 

Politically, Mr. Knappen is a Kepublican, 
but not a politician. He was prosecuting at- 
torney for Barry county from 1878 to 1882, 
U. S. Commissioner from 1880 to 1888, was 
three years a member of the Hastings Board of 
Education and its president for one year, and 
after locating at Grand Rapids was assistant 
prosecuting attorney from 1888 to 1891. He 
is a member of the National and State Bftr 
Associations, of the Grand Kapids Board of 
Education and of the Board of Trade of that 
city. Fraternally and socially, he is a member 
of the Masonic and Knights of Pythias soci- 
eties, of the Psi Upsilon college fraternity, 
Sons of the American Eevolution, Peninsular 
Club and Kent Country Club, and attends 
the Episcopal church. 

He was married in 1876 at Hastings to Miss 
Amelia I. Kenyon of that place. They have 
three children, Stuart E., practicing law with 
his father, Fred M., connected with the Grand 
Rapids Veneer Works, and Florence, a student 
at Vassar College. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



375 



GILKEY, PATEICK H. The father of 
Mr. Gilkey, eTohn F., came from Chester, 
Vermont, and settled in Kichland, Kalamazoo 
county, Mich., in 1830. His mother, Mary 
M. Lovell, a descendant of the Enos Eovell 
family, of Vermont, came soon after and with 
balance of family located at Climax, Kalama- 
zoo county, Mich., where they were united in 
marriage and returned to Richland, Kalama- 
zoo county, where Patrick II. was born, Nov. 
15, 1843. The father was one of the large 
farmers and business men in his locality and 
the son had the best educational advantages 
that the locality then afforded, which were 
confined to the district school and four years 
at the Richland Seminary, which it may be 
presumed was little, if any, in advance of the 
average graded school of today. Before reach- 
ing his majority he took a course at the East- 
man Business College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
When twenty-one years of age, he struck out 
on his own account and was a farmer until 
1878, a period of fourteen years. He then 
engaged in mercantile business at Richland 
village, with George M. Evers, under the firm 
name of Evers & Company, operating a gen- 
eral store and buying and selling grain and 
produce, also doing a private banking business. 
The first year's business proved lucrative and 
the firm then opened a branch concern at 
Prairie ville. Later the firm became Parker 
& Gilkey, which continued until 1880, the 
firm also operating a general store at Climax, 
Mich. Since 1880 Mr. Gilkey has been alone 
in business or associated with other partners 
and is at the present time with J. R. Hogg, 
conducting a general store at Richland, and 
managing a four hundred acre farm near there. 

For years Mr. Gilkey was the Republican 
leader in the part of the county in which he 
resides, but withdrew during the second Cleve- 
land administration on account of its position 
on the tariff question. He was not formally 
identified with the Democratic party but dis- 
approved of what he regarded as class legisla- 
tion as advocated in the Republican platforms 
and carried out in the legislation by that party. 
He is well known throughout western Michi- 




PATRICK H. GILKEY. 

gan as a writer in opposition to the so-called 
protective policy of the Republican party, hav- 
ing contributed many convincing articles on 
that subject and in the interests of the farmers. 
Being a large stockholder in protected indus- 
tries, he, with his pen, took up the interest of 
the farmer, which brought replies from nearly 
every State in the Union. In 1896 he was 
nominated for Congress by the Democrats of 
the Third Congressional District, but with- 
drcAV in favor of Albert M. Todd, who was 
elected. 

Mr. Gilkey has extended business connec- 
tions other than farming and mercantile, both 
at home and further west. He is a stockholder 
in the following named enterprises : Borden 
Paper Co., Otsego, Kalamazoo National Bank, 
Kalamazoo Paper Co., Union Bank of Rich- 
land, Lovell State Bank, Monticello, Iowa; 
City Bank of Lowell, Mich. ; National Bank of 
the Republic, Chicago, 111. His lodge connec- 
tions are Masonic including the Masonic de- 
grees. Miss Delia F. Parker of Richland be- 
came Mrs. Gilkey in 1869* They have a 
daughter and a son : Mary L., wife of Leon M. 
Jones, of Spokane, Wash., and Harold P., at 
home. 



me 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




MARK SPENCER BREWER. 



BEEWEE, MAEK SPEJ^OEE. The poet 
has written ^^There is a divinity that shapes 
our ends, rough-hew them as we may.'^ It is 
not venturing too much to say that Mr. 
Brewer's preference would have been for a 
quiet, domestic life, serving his neighbors and 
fellow-citizens uprightly, in a business and 
professional way. But the Fates seem to have 
decreed otherwise. Mr. Brewer seems to have 
been cut out for oiScial service and the people 
of Michigan wall be equally glad and proud 
that the pattern was not spoiled in the making. 
In spite of himself, Mr. Brewer has been kept 
almost continuously in the public service since 
he reached the age of manhood. Born in the 
township of Addison, Oakland county, Michi- 
gan, on October 22, 1837, he worked upon his 
father's farm until he was nineteen years of 
age, receiving his early education at the local 
schools and at the academies at Eojneo and 
Oxford, before the development of the local 
high schools in Michigan. He studied law at 
Pontiac with the late Governor Moses Wisner 
and the late Judge M. E. Crofoot, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1864 at Pontiac, where he 
has since practiced his profession, except when 
employed in the public service. In 1866 he 



was elected Circuit Court Commissioner for 
Oakland county, and re-elected in 1868, and 
was at the same time city attorney of Pontiac. 
In 1872 he was elected to the State Senate and 
although one of the younger members, he held 
a leading position in that body, serving through 
the regular session of 1873 and the special 
session of 1874. In 1876 he was elected to 
Congress and was re-elected in 1878. He 
served four years as consul-general at Berlin, 
Germany, 1881-1885. In 1886 he again en- 
tered the Congressional race and was elected, 
and re-elected in 1888, declining a renomina- 
tion in 1890. Mr. Brewer's career in Congress 
cannot here be sketched in detail. A Southern 
member had this to say of him in 1888 : "I 
hear that Brewer is having a hard fight up in 
Michigan and that he is running against a big 
bank account. All I have to say is this, that as 
the Eepublicans are to have the next House 
anyway, the voters of his district will make a 
big mistake if they do not return him." In 
1898 Mr. Brewer, without solicitation on his 
part, was appointed a member of the United 
States Civil Service Commission, the duties of 
which require his attendance at Washington, 
although his residence proper is still at Pontiac, 
Michigan. He was formerly a director of the 
Pontiac ISTational Bank and was treasurer of 
the Building Commission having in charge the 
erection of the Eastern Michigan Asylum for 
the Insane. He was a delegate at large from 
Michigan to the i^^ational Eepublican Conven- 
tion in 1896, and as a member of the Commit- 
tee on Eesolutions he helped frame the plat- 
form adopted at that convention. A local pa- 
per, when Mr. Brewer was candidate for Con- 
gress in 1886, said of him, "In Oakland 
county, where Mr. Brewer has lived from 
birth, he is held in the highest confidence and 
esteem by men of all political parties. He has 
been a staunch Eepublican and always deeply 
interested in the affairs of the country and his 
state. His record in Congress was such as to 
commend him to his constituents as he labored 
earnestly in their behalf." Mr. Brewer is a 
forcible, clear and logical public speaker, and 
has taken a prominent part upon the stump of 
Michigan and other states in every political 
campaign (save one, when he was abroad), 
since 1862. Mr. Brewer's present wife, to 
whom he was married December 26, 1889, 
was formerly Miss Louise B. Parker, daughter 
of Abiram Parker, president of the Com- 
mercial Bank of Pontiac. They have no chil- 
dren. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



377 



FISHER, SPEIsTCER O. Hillsdale county 
although a strong Republican locality, yet 
produces some Democrats, of which Mr. 
Fisher is an example, with T. E. Tarsney, a 
former colleague in Congress. Mr. Fisher 
was born in Camden, Hillsdale county, Feb- 
ruary 3rd, 1843. His primary school training 
was supplemented by a year at Albion College 
and a like term at Hillsdale College. He be- 
gan his business career, peddling milk, was 
next porter in a general store at $5 per week, 
then partner in same line and next a railroad 
contractor on the line between Hillsdale and 
Ypsilanti, in which he credited up some 
»$30,000 to the good. This was practically his 
start in life and he bought pine lands near Bay 
City and built a sawmill and was thus the 
founder of Fisherville. While a resident of 
Hillsdale, though a young man of twenty-five, 
he served a term as alderman. Becoming a 
resident of West Bay City he has filled the 
positions of alderman and mayor and has been 
a member of the school board twenty- one 
years and president of the Sage library board, 
having been appointed by H. W. Sage, the 
founder of said library, six years and trustee 
sixteen years. As mayor and alderman he 
made a record by his efforts for retrenchment, 
aiming to get the city departments on a basis 
similar to that on which he conducted his own 
business. In 1884 Mr. Fisher was elected to 
Congress from the Tenth District, and was re- 
elected in 1886, but defeated by about 100 
votes for a third term in 1888, he not having 
been able, through illness, to make a thorough 
canvass of his district. Mr. Fisher applied 
business methods in his Congressional career, 
rather than oratory, although he has the fac- 
ulty of presenting his views in a clear, concise 
manner when occasion calls. He has been 
spoken of as the best Congressman the Tenth 
District ever had. During his service he se- 
cured the erection of the new government 
building at Bay City and also the holding of 
terms of the United States Court there. In 
1894 Mr. Fisher was the Democratic candidate 
for Governor, but was unsuccessful. Al- 
though having large banking interests and 
having been president of the State Bankers' 
Association, Mr. Fisher has been pronounced 
in favor of the so-called free silver doctrine. 




SPENCER O. FISHER. 

He is a stockholder and director in the Lum- 
bermen's State Bank of West Bay City, 
which he organized and of which he was presi- 
dent for 25 years. 

Mr. Fisher was vice-president of the Michi- 
gan Sugar Beet Company its first year and in 
1899 closed out his interest and organized in 
one day the West Bay City Sugar Company, 
capitalized at $200,000, of which he became 
president. The plant did not start until late 
in the fall of 1899, but the company produced 
that year 4,000,000 pounds of sugar. He was 
an active promoter of the first coal company 
at Sebewaing (of which he is secretary and a 
director), which has developed the growing 
coal mining interests of the Saginaw Valley. 
He is president and general manager oi the 
Michigan Land & Lumber Company, and of 
the Morgan Lumber Company, owners of 
standing pine timber in the Georgian Bay Dis- 
trict of Ontario, estimated to cut 150,000,000 
feet of lumber. 

Mr. Fisher, with his family, attends the 
Presbyterian church. His wife, to whom he 
was married at Hillsdale, Mich., in 1867, was 
formerly Miss Kate H. Crane. Their family 
consists of three daughters, the eldest of whom, 
Grace, is the wife of Floyd A. Goodwin, pro- 
prietor of the Frazer House at Bay City. The , 
other two daughters, Nellie and Kate, reride 
at home. 



'W& 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




DANIEL HARVEY BAUL. 

BALL, DAN HARVEY. Although not 
Michigan born, Mr. Ball escaped being a na- 
tive of this state by only a few months, having 
been born at Sempronius, N. Y., Jan. 15th, 
1836, the family coming to Michigan in the 
spring of that year. They settled on a farm 
in the township of Webster, Washtenaw 
county, where the life of Dan H. was passed 
until his sixteenth year. The father died in 
1852, the family removing to Albion to avail 
themselves of the better educational facilities 
there, than the country schools afforded. 
After a year at Albion College, Mr. Ball took 
up the profession of teacher, teaching during 
the winter months and doing farm work in 
summer for several years, the family in the 
meantime having returned to the farm in 
Webster. In 1856 he entered the literary de- 
partment of the LTniversity, but lacking the 
necessary means to compliete the course, he 
resumed the teacher's gown, teaching at Ham- 
burg, Michigan, and for a year or two in 
Hlinois. In 1860 he entered the law depart- 
ment of the University, but family and busi- 
ness considerations compelled him to change 
his plans the following spring. The family 



resources were invested in a half interest in a 
grocery and provision store at Marquette, un- 
der the management of a brother, and by the 
death of the brother, the necessity forced itself 
upon Mr. Ball to go there and assume the 
management, in order, if possible, to save the 
family interests. He bought out the other 
partner and after a year's hard work disposed 
of the business with a ledger balance showing 
but a small margin on the profit side. He had 
already made a beginning in law practice and 
it was his intention to open an office, but he 
was lured into the newspaper field. For two 
years he was part owner and editor of the Lake 
Superior News and later the Lake Superior 
Journal. He conducted his newspaper opera- 
tions until 1864, when he sold out and com- 
menced the practice of law. After two years 
at Marquette he removed to Houghton, which 
at that time seemed the more promising field. 
He there entered into a partnership with 
James B. Ross which continued until 1870, 
where a good practice was established, when 
Mr. Ball returned to Marquette, where he has 
since resided, with all the business that he 
could attend to. The present firm is Ball & 
Ball, the junior member being a son, James 
Everett Ball. The firm stands at the head of 
a profession in a district, the large mining in- 
terests of which demand the highest grade of 
legal ability. Mr. Ball was Register of the 
United States Land Office at Marquette from 
1862 to 1865 and prosecuting attorney of 
Marquette county, 1864-5. Miss Emma E. 
Everett, daughter of Philo M. Everett, of 
Marquette, became Mrs. Ball May 2, 1863. 
They have five children, including the junior 
partner of the law firm. Emily M. is the wife 
of Attorney Clarence M. Smith at Redlands, 
Cal., and Mabel E. is the wife of Attorney 
Walter B. Hill, of East Liverpool, O. ; George 
E. is second lieutenant. Twenty-first Infantry, 
U. S. A., at present engaged in the campaign 
in the Philippines, and Helen Grace is the 
wife of John G. Stone, a young lawyer of 
Grand Rapids, son of Judge Stone, of Mar- 
quette. 



HISTOEIOAL SKETCHES. 



379 



MASON, EICHAED. The city of Glad- 
stone, the Lake Michigan port of the Minne- 
apolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie railway 
(called for short the ^^Soo Line"), Was founded 
by Mr. Mason, whose energy and persistence 
finally succeeded in spite of many difficulties, 
in convincing those interested of the necessity 
for this link of their enterprise. The father of 
Mr. Mason came to America from England in 
1828. He was a machinist by trade and was 
employed in the construction of the second 
steamboat built in this country, at some point 
on the Connecticut river. He came to Spring 
Lake, Michigan, in 1837, where he built the 
second sawmill at the mouth of the Grand 
River, the first having been built by the Eev. 
Mr. Ferry, whose name is historically associ- 
ated with the locality. The mills were steam 
mills of about six-horse power. The younger 
Mason was born in a log cabin at Spring Lake, 
May 30, 1842, and his first schooling was in a 
log school house in a school taught by his aunt. 
The father having removed to Chicago in 
1848, the son attended school there and in 
1857 was sent to school at Evanston (near 
Chicago) and in 1858 to a business school in 
Chicago. The elder Mason having in 1852, 
bought what was known as the "Steam MilP' 
on Bale de Xoquet (popularly Bay de ISToc), 
the son began the business of life there, as a 
bookkeeper. In 1864 the father resumed busi- 
ness in Chicago with the son as a partner, clos- 
ing out in 1868 by reason of the son's illness. 
The father died in 1870 and the son resumed 
the manufacture of lumb*er at the mill (then 
called Masonville) but closing out by reason of 
the panic in 1873, which made the work un- 
profitable. He then read law for several years 
but never applied for admission to the bar. 
AVhen the Soo Line was built in 1887, Mr. 
Mason resumed the lumber business in con- 
nection with C. N. Davis of Chicago, at 
Saunders' Point, the site of the present city of 
Gladstone, continuing the manufacture until 
the panic of 1893 once more interrupted the 
business. 

As the founder of the young city of Glad- 
stone, Mr. Mason was elected Mayor in 1892 




HON. RICHARD MASON. 

and again in 1894. In IsTovember, 1894, he 
was elected a member of the State Senate, by 
a majority of some 2,500, in a district which 
by an adroit territorial arrangement, a previ- 
ous Democratic legislature had thought to 
make solidly their way. He was re-elected in 
1896 by about 1,000 better than his previous 
majority, notwithstanding the cry raised 
against him that he was a ^^corporation man" 
and an enemy of the people, because he de- 
manded justice for the pioneer railroads of the 
Upper Peninsula as well as for everyone else. 
As a senator, Mr. Mason was not among the 
friends of the so-called Atkinson bill, which 
he regarded as radical and unconstitutional, a 
view which he believes the sincere men who 
favored that measure will in time come to share 
with him. He did, however, favor a commis- 
sion similar to the present tax commission, 
charged with the duty of enquiring into the 
whole subject of taxation and reporting to a 
subsequent legislature. He also favored the 
repeal of special charters and placing all cor- 
porations under general laws. Senator Mason 
wishes particularly to be remembered as the 
author of the amendment to the tax laws which 
makes it impossible for a tax title shark to take 
a man's home on a tax title. 



380 



MEK OF PKOGEESS. 




JAMES RUSSELL. 

EUSSELL, Jx\MES. The first daily news- 
paper in the Tipper Peninsula owes its pater- 
nity to Mr. James Eussell. Born at Hartford, 
Wis., January 23rd, 1840, the son of Francis 
T. Eussell, a farmer, his early education was 
received in the public schools of Hartford 
Village and at Mankato, Minn., to which his 
parents removed. Here he received his first 
introduction to the printer's art, beginning at 
the bottom round of the ladder, as an appren- 
tice. He returned to his school work, how- 
ever, passing through the High School at Man- 
kato, and after teaching a couple of years, en- 
tered the State University at Madison, Wis. 
His star of destiny, however, seemed to point 
to the field of journalism, and in 1871 he left 
the Universitj^ before graduating, to take a 
position on the Fond du Lac (Wis.) Journal, 
of which his uncle was part owner. In 1873, 
with T. F. Strong as partner, he purchased the 
paper, which under the new management 
started on a new career, trebling its business. 
Mr. Eussell continued this connection until 
1880, when he disposed of his interest and 
established the "IsTorth Star" at Marinette, 
Wis. But he was adapted to a broader field, 
and quite naturally the place did not suit him. 



He sold out the following June and went to 
Marquette to take charge of the Mining Jour- 
nal, then a weekly and the oldest paper in the 
Upper Peninsula, having been established by 
A. P. Swineford, who was still its owner. 
Within a year Mr. Eussell purchased an in- 
terest in the paper in connection with Mr. A. 
Hornstein and two years later the Daily Min- 
ing Journal was launched, with Mr. Eussell as 
managing editor. In 1885 Mr. Swineford was 
appointed Governor of Alaska, and went to 
that territory to assume the duties of the ofiice. 
In 1888 the Swineford interest was purchased 
by Mr. J. M. Longyear and the ^^Mining Jour- 
nal Company, Limited," was formed to carry 
on the business, Mr. Eussell continuing (as he 
still continues) in charge of the paper, during 
all these changes. 

Mr. Eussell held the oflSce of postmaster at 
Marquette during the first Cleveland adminis- 
tration, and during his term the free delivery 
system was instituted there, it being the first 
city in the Upper Peninsula to be given the 
service. Until 1898 he had afiiliated with the 
Democratic party, though not fully in sym- 
pathy with its policies, but he now ranks as a 
Eepublican, but one of pronounced inde- 
pendence in his views, and a vigorous opponent 
of machine rule and bossism. He was ap- 
pointed Commissioner of Mineral Statistics by 
Gov. Pingree in April, 1899. While at Fond 
du Lac he was clerk in the Fond du Lac County 
Court. He is now serving as member and 
president of the Board of Light and Power 
Commissioners of Marquette, in charge of the 
city's lighting plant.' He served as a member 
of the Water Board for seven years, during 
which the water system now in use was 
brought to its present state of perfection. He 
also served as Supervisor of his ward. His 
oflScial record, therefore, runs through ward, 
city, county, state and national service. 

Mr. Eussell is connected with several fra- 
ternal organizations and is Exalted Euler of 
Marquette Lodge, 405, B. P. O. E. (Elks). 

Miss Katherine Eiley, daughter of Mr. E. 
and Mrs. Bessie Eiley, of Fond du Lac, be- 
came Mrs. Eussell in 1878. Their children 
are Frank, now in charge of the repertorial 
work of the paper at Ishpeming and Negau- 
nee, and Fannie, Edith and Mabel, at home. 



HISTOKIOAL SKETCHES. 



381 



WINSOK, LOU B. Having been an en- 
thusiastic member of the Masonic fraternity, 
Mr. Winsor's record in that behalf commands 
the greater prominence. Xow an attorney-at- 
]aw at Keed City, Mr. Winsor was born in 
.Providence, E. I., January 24, 1858, came 
to Michigan in March, 1863, with his parents, 
Avho located in Hillsdale, graduated from 
Hillsdale College in June, 1877, went to the 
University of Michigan in the fall of 1877, 
taking a law course and graduating in 1879, 
then went to Port Austin, Mich., and entered 
the law office of Winsor & Snover as a clerk, 
remaining there until IN'ovember, 1880, when 
he went to Reed City and formed a law part- 
nership with Ransom Cooper under the firm 
name of Cooper & Winsor, which continued 
until 1888, since which time he has continued 
in business there alone. He held the oflSce of 
City Attorney of Reed City from 1881 to 
1892, twelve years; City Clerk, 1884 to 1892, 
nine years; Judge of Probate of Osceola 
county four years, from 1893 to '97. He was 
married at Reed City, September 16, 1886, to 
Miss Emma Adams, Carl Webb, an infant, 
being their only offspring. Mr. Winsor re- 
ceived the Blue Lodge Degrees (Masonic) in 
Reed City Lodge, No. 361, in the summer of 
1881, was made a Royal Arch Mason Febru- 
ary 22, 1882, in Big Rapids Chapter, No. 52, 
Royal and Select Master, February 26, 1889, 
in King Solomon Council, No. 25; Royal and 
Select Master at Big Rapids, Knights Templar 
and Knight of Malta, April 11th, 1882, in 
Pilgrim Commandery, No. 23, Big Rapids; 
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, 32d De- 
gree, February 12, 1885, in DeWitt Clinton 
Consistory at Grand Rapids; Noble of the 
Mystic Shrine, February 10, 1886, in Saladin 
Temple, Grand Rapids. He received the 33d 
Degree September 20, 1898, at Cincinnati, 
Ohio. He has been the recipient of the high- 
est oflScial honors that the fraternity can be- 
stow. Having passed the chairs of the local 
bodies, he was in 1896 elected Grand High 
Priest of the Grand Chapter of Michigan, and 
a year later, Grand Master of the Grand 
Lodge. He was one of the charter members of 
Saladin Temple at Grand Rapids in 1886, was 
elected First Ceremonial Master and pro- 
moted each year up to the position of Poten- 




LOU B. WINSOR. 

tate in 1893 and in 1900 was elected Imperial 
Potentate at Washington. Mr. Winsor's 
Masonic record is one of which any man may- 
be proud and the honors which have come to 
him are due to his excessive zeal in the order. 
From the time of his first receiving light in 
Masonry he became an active and enthusiastic 
worker and his brethren, recognizing his abil- 
ities, were lavish in showering upon him all 
the official gifts in their power, and in every 
position to which he has been called he has 
displayed a remarkable ability that has con- 
stantly won for him deserved promotion. 

Mr. Winsor traces his descent back over 
four hundred years, to Lord Edward Windsor 
of Windsor Castle, England, whose great 
grandson, Robert Windsor, was in 1520 hon- 
ored by Henry VIII. His father, James W. 
Winsor, and mother, Ann Chilson, were resi- 
dents of Providence, the father being in direct 
descent from Joshua Winsor (descended as 
above), who came from England in 1637 and 
settled in Providence. After coming to this 
country the "d'' was left out of the nanie. 
Samuel Winsor, son of Joshua, married Mercy 
Williams, a daughter of Roger Williams, and 
Mr. Lou B. Winsor is seventh in descent from 
this union. 

In connection with his legal business, Mr. 
Winsor conducts an insurance, real estate and 
loan office at Reed City. 



$m 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




ROBERT HUGH SHIELDS. 



SHIELDS, EOBEKT HUGH. Although 
the name of Mr. Shields has an Irish flavor, 
he is of Scotch parentage, his father, James 
Shields, having come to the Michigan Copper 
District in 1857, from Kilmarnock, Scotland. 
The son, Eobert H., was born at Hancock, 
May 22nd, 1861. His early youth was passed 
at the local schools and when eleven years old 
he went to work washing copper at the Frank- 
lin Stamp Mill at $12 per month, being there 
employed for two years. He then resumed 
his school studies until he was eighteen, when 
he secured a first grade teacher's certificate 
and taught at the Eipley school for five years. 
During the summer vacations he attended the 
Valparaiso, Ind., formal School, and was one 
summer at the Bryant & Stratton Business 
College, Detroit, from which he graduated in 
1883. With this thorough equipment for a 
successful business career, he entered the field 
of journalism and established the /^Copper 
Journal,'' of which he was editor and proprie- 
tor. He was also correspondent of the Mar- 
quette Mining Journal, being their first cor- 
respondent in the copper country. After- 
wards he became clerk of the Centennial Cop- 
per Mining Company, and in 1892, while thus 
employed, he was elected County Clerk of 



Houghton coimty on the Eepublican ticket, 
entering upon the duties of the office January 
1st, 1893. He was re-elected in 1894 and 
again in 1896, and during his term was ten- 
dered the position of clerk of the newly organ- 
ized Arcadian Mine in Houghton county. Mr. 
Shields enjoys the distinction of having re- 
ceived the largest vote cast for any candidate 
in Houghton county, and upon his retirement 
from the office of County Clerk, the Eepub- 
lican county convention held in August, 1898, 
^^in consideration of his long term of service 
to the county and of his efficient and faithful 
work'' unanimously tendered to Mr. Shields 
a hearty vote of thanks. He served out his 
term as County Clerk, closing with January 
1, 1899, when he at once entered upon his new 
duties, giving his whole time and attention in 
looking after the financial and office work of 
the above named company. 

Mr. Shields' fraternal connections are 
Masonic, including the Knights Templar and 
Mystic Shrine Degrees, Knights of Pythias 
and Elks. Miss Carrie K. Merton, daughter 
of James Merton, of Calumet, became Mrs. 
Shields in 1893. They have three children, 
two daughters and a son — Marion, Dorothy 
and Nathan. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



883 



BUEROWS, HON. JULIUS C. Mr. 

Burrows first came before the people of Michi- 
gan in a public way as a young lawyer at Kal- 
amazoo in 1861. The breaking out of the war 
broke up his immediate plans as to practice 
and he raised a company, of which he became 
Captain, which was attached to the 17th Mich- 
igan Infantry. Reared in the atmosphere of 
the Western Reserve in Ohio, which was 
strongly anti-slavery in sentiment, Mr. Bur- 
rows the more readily enlisted in a struggle 
which by the logic of necessity (whether so 
recognized at the time or not) involved the 
opposites of freedom and slavery. 

Mr. Burrows was born, of Connecticut par- 
ents, in Erie county. Pa., January 9th, 1837, 
the family removing in 1850 to Ashtabuk 
county, Ohio. He was the youngest of a fam- 
ily of eight children, seven of whom were 
boys. He began the battle of life as a teacher 
at the age of sixteen. Later he attended the 
Kingsville Academy, cooking his own food 
and doing chores at the institution, to pay his 
tuition. In the fall of 1856 he was made prin- 
cipal of a female seminary at Madison, Ohio, 
and at the age of nineteen found a wife in the 
person of one of his pupils. Miss Jennie Hib- 
bard. In the fall of 1858 he became principal 
of the Union School at Jefferson, Ashtabula 
county, and during his service there he took 
up the study of law^, which had been his am- 
bition, and was admitted to practice in 1859. 
In 1860 he came to Michigan with his wife 
and infant daughter and took charge of a sem- 
inary at Richland, Kalamazoo county, from 
whence he removed to the then village of Kal- 
amazoo. 

Capt. Burrows was summoned from the 
field in the fall of 1863 by the illness of his 
wife, who died in August, 1864. His voice 
and efforts were, however, effectively em- 
ployed in home Avork in measures necessary in 
the prosecution of the war. He resumed the 
practice of law at Kalamazoo and was elected 
Prosecuting Attorney in 1866 and again in 
1868. He was a law partner with Henry F. 
Severans, now U. S. Circuit Judge, from 1868 
to 1872, the firm being the leading one in 
Southwestern Michigan. In the last named 
year Mr. Burrows was elected to Congress and 
his subsequent history cannot be separated 
from that of the state and nation. He was 
defeated for re-election in 1874 and resumed 
his professional relations with Judge Severans. 




HON. JULIUS C. BURROWS. 

He was again elected in 1878 and 1880, but 
defeated by a narrow margin in 1882. He was 
again returned in 1884 and at each subsequent 
election up to and including 1894, making six 
consecutive elections, and in all nine terms in 
Congress, resigning his last term, however, to 
accept a seat in the U. S. Senate. At the 
legislative session of 1895 he was elected to 
the U. S. Senate in place of Senator Stock- 
bridge, deceased, and again elected for the full 
term in 1899. During the intervals of his 
Congressional service Mr. Burrows was ten- 
•iered several flattering appointments, which 
he declined. 

During his service in the lower house of 
Congress, Mr. Burrows was the acknowledged 
parliamentarian of the body and was fre- 
quently called temporarily to the chair, and 
twice elected speaker pro tern. His rank as a 
speaker, both on the stump and in the forum, 
is the distinguishing fact in his public life. 
His party has no more effective advocate in its 
political campaigns and in behalf of its par- 
tisan measures in Congress. It seems hardly 
necessary to say thaf Mr. Burrows' politics is 
of the stalwart Republican order. His relig- 
ious connection is Congregational. In 1865 
Mr. Burrows took a second wife in the person 
of Miss Francis S. Peck, daughter of Horace 
B. Peck, of Kalamazoo. No childrea have 
been born to this marriage. 



mi: 



MJKJN U}^ rttUUXiJiiOo. 




JA.MES WEBB LONG. 



LONG, JAMES WEBB. Major Long is 
at present inspector and store keeper at the 
TJ. S. Signal Ser^dce headquarters at Washing- 
ton, to which position he was appointed June 
20th, 1898. If this position is a soft place, 
Major Long his certainly earned it by a varied 
and faithful service. The Longs w^ere orig- 
inally of Scotch-Irish descent. The grand- 
father of Major Long, Hon. John Long, was 
a member of Congress during the Jacksonian 
Presidency, 1827-35. His father was a gradu- 
ate of the West Point Military Academy and 
was a lieutenant in the regular army. His 
mother, Phoebe Ann Fitch, was a descendant 
of the Fitch family of Connecticut. Major 
Long was born at Hillsborough, J^. C, June 
20th, 1840, and his early boyhood was passea 
at different points to which his father was 
assigned for duty. The father was stationed 
at Detroit in 1844 until his death in 1846, 
during which time the son attended school and 
later at Buffalo, N. Y., until 1853. He then 
returned to the home of his grandparents in 
North Carolina, when he graduated from the 
Ashboro Collegiate Institute in 1858. During 
his collegiate course he had experience in 
newspaper work and subsequently worked for 



a year in a store. In 1859 he became city 
editor of the Commercial Advertiser at Buf- 
falo and accompanied the Prince of Wales 
party in their tour of the country. He was ap- 
pointed a second lieutenant in the army (regu- 
lar) August 5, 1861 and served during the 
Civil War, during the same time acting as cor- 
respondent of a Buffalo paper. He saw a ' 
varied military service. He was wounded 
three times at the' battle of Gaines Mill, the 
most serious being a face wound, the effects 
of which incapacitated him for active service, 
although preferring this to detached service on 
which he was mostly engaged when able to do 
duty at all, up to the time of his resignation 
December 31st, 1870. During his service he 
rose to the rank of Major and was for a time in 
command of his regiment. In 1869 he was 
assigned to duty as Indian Agent at Detroit 
and in this capacity he perfected the selection 
of lands for the Indians of Michigan, thus 
throwing open to settlement and taxation 
vast tracts of land in Isabella, Oceana, Mason, 
Grand Traverse, Leelanaw and Chippewa 
counties. 

After his retirement from the army. Major 
Long removed to Mount Pleasant, Mich., and 
engaged in the drug and newspaper business. 
He was for thirteen years publisher of the 
Mount Pleasant Times and also the Kegister 
at Farwell. His journalistic record has been 
recognized by his election as vice-president of 
the West Michigan Press Association and 
service on its executive committee. He is a 
well known writer, as well as musical com- 
poser. In 1885 he was assistant engrossing 
and enrolling clerk in the House of Kepre- 
sentatives in Lansing. 

In 1885 Major Long was appomted 
Adjutant of the Soldiers' Home at Grand 
Kapids, by Governor Alger and removed to 
Grand Eapids, serving in that capacity until 
he retired in 1898, for political reasons. He 
is a charter member of G. A. K. Post No. 250, 
of Mount Pleasant and of the IT. V. U. (Union 
Veterans' Union) No. 26, of Grand Kapids. 
He was department commander of the Michi- 
gan U. V. U., and first deputy national com- 
mander of the same organization for one term. 
He was married in 1867 to Miss Annie Graves, 
a daughter, of Judge Lorenzo Graves, of War- 
saw, Ky. They have one child living, a 
daughter. Miss Annie Fitch Long. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



385 



MOKGANS, WILLIAM H. One of Pon- 
tiac's most successful and enterprising business 
men and one that has the confidence of not 
only the people of the place where he and his 
estimable family for the past twenty years 
have lived, but in nearly every city of im- 
portance in the Union is the name of William 
H. Morgans known and respected, both in a 
business and social way. His career has been 
one that anyone might feel proud of. Born of 
inventive ancestors, his mother's father being 
the inventor of the first scale beam ever used 
in New York City. ^^Will,'' as everyone calls 
him at home, was born in New York City 
Oct. 5, 1844, and begun his rudimental educa- 
tion, all he acquired, in public schools in New 
York City. His mechanical education he be- 
gan at the age of eleven years as an apprentice 
to a sail maker. His loyalty to the Union took 
him away from his home at the age of sixteen, 
when he served in the First New York Inde- 
pendent Battalion, or better known as the 
"lost children." On his discharge he re- 
enlisted in the Eighth New York Cavalry. 
He belonged to the third division of the Army 
of the Potomac and took part in the siege of 
Yorktown and was in at the surrender. From 
there under Gen. Foster in Gen. Keys' corps 
he was active in the siege of Melburn, North 
Carolina; from there to Hilton Head, South 
Carolina, and joined Gen. Hunter the follow- 
ing summer ; under Gen. Gilmore participated 
in the siege and capture of Morris Island; the 
following winter, while holding rank of 
Sergeant was discharged and gained more hon- 
ors by the bravery he displayed at Kenasaw 
Mountain and Atlanta with Gen. Sherman on 
his march to the sea; he was captured at Mill- 
edgeville, Georgia; was taken to Florence 
Prison, from there to Richmond, where he was 
paroled and was discharged in June '65. His 
public life has been commendable to the peo- 
ple who have supported him. He has repre- 
sented the first ward as alderman two terms, 




WILLIAM H. MORGANS. 

been member of the fire department as assist- 
ant chief so many years that no one can re- 
member. He has been one of the most efiicient 
members of the board of public works. His 
business affairs have been conducted on the 
same lines. In 1880 he was made superin- 
tendent of the Medbury Gas Company and in 
1896 was made, without any solicitation on 
his part, general manager, and he now by his 
efforts owns the same. He is a Republican in 
politics and his maiden order. Odd Fellows, 
followed with Masons and a member of the 
Oakland Chapter, No. 5, and Pontiac Com- 
mandery, No. 2. Is Major 4th Battalion of 
the Uniform Rank, K. of P. ; is a Maccabee; 
Past Commander Dick Richardson Post, G. A. 
R. ; has walked on the burning sands alongside 
of his brother Shriners, and is also a Knight of 
the Kohrassan; director State Home Acquatic 
Club and a member of the Episcopal church. 
No person could be more devoted to his 
family and his wife, the daughter of James 
A. Cole, of Detroit, has been his helpmate and 
assisted him through all his business career. 
Four children have blessed their union, 
"Morgie" Morgan, Mrs. Ed. Morrill of Chi- 
cago, Florence E., his secretary, and .Annie A. 



lie 



MEN or PKOGKESS. 




AMOS S. MUSSELMAN. 



MUSSELMAN, AMOS S. Mr. Mussel- 
man is of that good, sturdy stock known as 
*Tennsylvania Dutch/' whose ancestors fly- 
ing from religious persecution some two hun- 
dred years ago took refuge in the land of 
William Penn. His parents, upon their mar- 
riage, settled upon a farm eight miles from 
Gettysburg, Pa., where Amos S. was born 
Oct. 19th, 1857. 

He attended common school until 15 years 
of age, then entered Pennsylvania College at 
Gettysburg, where he pursued the classical 
course for three years. The death of his father 
compelled him to return home and assume 
management of the estate. After two years he 
resumed his studies at college. He had aspired 
to professional life, but the panic of 1873, 
sweeping away all his inheritance from the 
estate of his parents, which he had invested in 
an enterprise at York, Pa., his plans were 
perforce changed and he entered Eastman's 
Business College at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 
1875. He took the entire commercial course 
and was so proficient on graduating that he 
was engaged to teach in the banking and busi- 
ness departments of the institution. In 
October, 1876, he came. to Grand Kapids and 
accepted a position with the firm of Graff & 
McSkimmin, jobbers of teas, coffees and 
spices, representing Mr. Peter Graff, whose 



entire time was engrossed by his milling inter- 
ests. The firm subsequently purchased the 
Avholesale grocery establishment of Samuel 
Fox & Co., and Mr. Musselmam remained with 
the house until January, 1879, when he re- 
signed to take the position of bookkeeper with 
Hibbard & Graff, at that time the leading flour 
millers of the city. On the failure of this firm 
in February, 1881, Mr. Musselman decided to 
embark in the wholesale grocery business and 
in June of that year the firm of Fox, Mussel- 
man & Loveridge, composed of James Fox, 
Amos S. Musselman and L. L. Loveridge, 
opened for business. This co-partnership con- 
tinued for five years, Avhen Mr. Musselman 
purchased the interests of his partners and 
formed a copartnership with Wm. Widdicomb, 
under the style of Amos S. Musselman & Co. 
Three years later the firm name was changed 
to Musselman & Widdicomb. In February, 
1893, Mr. Widdicomb retired from the busi- 
ness and the firm was succeeded by a corpora- 
tion with a paid in capital stock of $70,000, of 
which Mr. Musselman was the president and 
general manager. 

Mr. Musselman is president of the Grand 
Kapids Board of Trade, of which he was a 
charter member. His other connections in- 
clude banking, telephone and trust companies, 
manufacturing, membership in state and 
national wholesale grocers' associations, etc. 
He was president of the Lincoln Club for some 
time, president of the Kent County Sunday 
School Association and of the Grand Kapids 
Sunday School Union. As chairman of the 
committee on Statistics of the Board of Trade, 
he prepared the manufacturing statistics for 
the city for the general census of 1890. This 
duty was discharged so acceptably as to win 
for him the encomiums of the Census Depart- 
ment. 

In religion Mr. Musselman is a Presbyter- 
ian and a member of the Westminster Pres- 
byterian Church of Grand Kapids. 1 or four 
years he was an elder and trustee in Immanuel 
Presbyterian Church, of which he was prac- 
tically the founder. He contributes one-tenth 
of his income to religious and charitable pur- 
poses. He is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias, 
a member of the Koyal Arcanum and of the 
Peninsular and Kent County Golf Clubs. 

Such is the career, briefly told, of a gentle- 
man whose qualities of mind and heart and 
whose judgment and perseverance have made 
him respected and successful to a degree 
which many an older man might envy. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



sm 



DODDS, PETER FABIAN. If similar- 
ity of choice be deemed evidence, a tendency 
to the law as a profession would seem to run 
in the Dodds family, as Judge Dodds is one 
of four brothers to adopt the legal profession, 
the other three being F. H., in practice in 
Mount Pleasant; AVm. L., who died in 1894, 
and George E., a resident of Colorado. The 
parents, John and Catherine (Hoy) Dodds, 
were emigrants from Ireland, first settling in 
St. Lawrence county, IST. Y., where Peter F. 
was born January 4th, 1849. Coming to 
Michigan in 1866, they located in Isabella 
county, the future judge being then seventeen 
years of age. His education had been but 
primary, but when nineteen he began teach- 
ing a country school, being thus engaged most 
of the time until 1874, his actual service agre- 
gating 57 months. Being an earnest, ambiti- 
ous young man, his leisure hours were devoted 
to study so that he was enabled to enter the 
State Normal School as an advanced student, 
graduating therefrom with the full English 
course in 1874. Not satisfied with the pres- 
tige which the diploma from that institution 
gave, he pursued higher collegiate studies 
under the tutelage of the faculty of Olivet Col- 
lege. He was a member of its graduating 
class in 1882, receiving the degree of A. B., 
which was followed later by the degree of A. 
M. His collegiate studies were pursued purely 
as a mental discipline, he having previously 
been admitted to the bar in active practice. 
His industry is shown by the fact that his 
legal studies were pursued concurrently with 
his educational work so that he was admitted 
to practice in Ithaca in 1875 and began his pro- 
fessional career under very favorable circum- 
stances. Hon. Isaac A. Fancher was a prac- 
ticing attorney at Mt. Pleasant and a leading 
member of the bar of Isabella county. He had 
been a member of the House of Representa- 
tives in 1873 and was elected to the State Sen- 
ate in 1875, serving with distinction in both 
bodies. Recognizing the ability of Mr. Dodds, 
he proposed a partnership. Such a proposal 
coming from a man of Mr. Fancher's standing 
was equally complimentary and advantageous 



r ' ^t .^^^-t^'^^^M 


gjr£^:? ,>; .^ 


Si- ''' 






pi" 






^fe 


^'A' 'Hlk^^Ml^^^^^^^^^^ 




^^^^ 


V -^^^ ^mf^^^^^^^^H 




^^g^^p 


'' /.^^^^^^^^^^^^Hi 




^^^^^ 






^m 






^E 


'"^^^H^l 




H 








-^'^^^^^^^KKS^^^^K^Bm^ 










«| 


■*. >■ v^^I^hbH^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I 




^k'^' 


, ^':^^B|^^^^^^^HH|H 




^K'j 


'I Vii^HHH^^^^^^^^^B 




^^p^<r' 


J, ^i^f^^^H^^Nj^^^lHIl 




^^S-""* 


f^^^^HK', ^''^^M^^^^^^H 






'^^'^^^^^^ ' '^mi^^v 




^^^^ 


>'> '^^^^^^^Hl^ "^^Iv 




^P'\; 








• ''^I^^^^^^Hjjj^tt*^ ' ' ^ A 




W""' 


^' ''^^'^HRI^^^^^^^H 




w-: 










fi-* 'o' * 


- ^ 'if "" ''""■^ '* "" * '■ '-'■^ * ' '' 


.f *' 


O' SS r- ' 


;' .. A . • V - ''-i- \* 


.- -. ^ L 


■rM4. 



PETER FABIAN DODDS. 

and was readily accepted. The connection 
brought Mr. Dodds into contact with a most 
desirable class of clients and at once gave him 
a standing before the public. On Mr. Fan- 
cher 's removal to Detroit in 1880, F. H. Dodds 
took his place as a member of the firm. 
Though not an office seeker. Judge Dpdds 
was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Isabella 
county in 1880, serving one term and making 
an enviable record, but declining re-election. 
In 1893 he was elected Judge of the Twenty- 
first Judicial Circuit, taking his place on the 
bench on the first of elanuary following. No 
better testimony could be given as to the ac- 
ceptable manner in which he discharged its 
duties than the fact of his re-election in 1899, 
for the further term of six years. He has been 
a member of the county board of School Ex- 
aminers and has always taken a lively interest 
in the education of the rising generation. He 
is a pleasant and social gentleman and is much 
regarded in Masonic circles, in which he is 
prominent. He is also a member of the 
Knights of Pythias and Royal Arcanum. Soon 
after his admission to the bar he was mamed 
(April 20, 1876), to Miss Minnie E. BoutOB, 
daughter of Henry S. and Cornelia Bouton, 
formerly of Homer, Calhoun county. They 
have one son, Fabian Bouton Dodds. 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




J. WIGHT GIDDINGS. 

GIDDINGS, J. WIGHT. An ex-member 
of the Senate and ex-Lieutenant Governor of 
the State, Mr. Giddings at present fills the 
several roles of attorney-at-law, j^dg^? and 
popular lecturer. He was born at Romeo, 
Sept. 27, 1858, and received his education 
there, up to the age of 17, when he took the 
freshman year at Oberlin College (Ohio), and 
in 1878 entered Amherst (Mass.) College for 
the classical course. He left college in his 
senior year, and in 1880 entered the legal de- 
partment of the Chicago & iS^orthwestern 
Eailroad at Chicago. He went in as a student 
and read law, doing clerical work without sal- 
ary in consideration of the advantages which 
the situation offered. He continued in this 
connection until 1882, when he removed to 
Cadillac, his present residence, and bought the 
Cadillac News, a Eepublican weekly paper, of 
which he was editor and proprietor until 1887, 
when he sold out the plant. He continued his 
law studies and was admitted to practice in 
1886 before Judge S. S. Fallass, judge of the 
Twenty-eighth judicial circuit. After retiring 
from his newspaper enterprise he began the 
practice of law in company with S. J. Wall, of 
Cadillac, and with him built up an extensive* 



practice in Northern Michigan. Two years 
later he was in partnership with E. E. Haskins, 
Avhich continued until 1889, since which time 
he has been in practice alone. Mr. Giddings 
was elected a member of the State Senate in 
1886 and re-elected in 1888. In 1892 he was 
elected Lieutenant-Governor of the State, be- 
ing second on the ticket with John T. Rich, 
who was then elected Governor for his first 
term. In 1896 he was elected Judge of the 
Eecorder^s Court of Cadillac for the term of 
six years. He has served on the Board of Edu- 
cation of Cadillac for seven years, and was 
chairman of the Eepublican State Convention 
in 1896. 

Mr. Giddings is direct in descent from Rob- 
ert Giddings, who came from England in 
H 637 and settled at Ipswich, Mass. His father 
was M. A. Giddings, his grandfather bearing 
the same name with himself. His mother, 
Caroline Beekman, was of the Van Beekman 
family of T^ew York City. 

He is a member of the Uniformed Eank, 
Knights of Pythias, and w^as for a year Chan- 
cellor Commander of Cadillac Lodge, No. 46, 
of that order. He is also a member of the 
Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity of Amherst 
College. Miss Fidele Fitch, daughter of Hon. 
Ferris S. Fitch, of Ingham county, became 
Mrs. Giddings in 1883. Mr. Fitch was for 
many years a prominent Democratic politician 
in Central Michigan, was a member of the 
Legislature in 1853 and 1855, and was once a 
candidate for Governor. 

Mr. Giddings has been on the lecture plat- 
form a number of seasons under the auspices 
of the Central Lyceum Bureau of Eochester, 
N. Y. Three of his subjects are ^The Evolu- 
tion of the Demagogue,'^ ^^Uncle Sam's Peo- 
ple,'^ and ^^Cardinal and King," the latter giv- 
ing a picturesque view of the life and prom- 
inent figures of the sixteenth century. His 
lectures are commended by fully an hundred 
testimonials from men of prominence, and by 
the press, of which the following from the 
chairman of the lecture committee, New Ha- 
ven, Conn., is fairly representative: ^^Mr. 
Giddings returns to us this year in compliance 
with the unanimous desire of all who heard 
him last year. Scores of people, even in this 
much lectured city, declared it was the best 
lecture they ever heard." 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



889 



FITZGERALD, JOHN C. Jeremiah 
FitzGerald, father of John C, was a native of 
N'ew York, although the name suggests a 
Norman descent. He served his country as a 
captain of volunteers in the war of 1812. The 
mother, Sylvia Strickland, was of Puritan 
stock. His parents resided in Huron county, 
Ohio, at the time of the birth of John C, in 
the year 1835, and removed to Michigan in 
his early infancy, settling on a farm in Spring- 
port, Jackson county. The son's early experi- 
ences were those of most farmer boys at the 
time. His labor was needpd on the farm as 
soon as he was able to gather brush or ply the 
hoe, and the school facilities were meagre. 
These the young lad made the most of, study- 
ing his lessons by the light of the evening fire 
in winter. By perseverance and application 
he qualified himself for teaching and his first 
available resources were earned in that call- 
ing. With means thus secured he was enabled 
to pursue a course of study at Albion College. 
The profession of the law had been the magnet 
that inspired his early efforts, and upon leav- 
ing college he became a student in the office 
of Austin Blair of Jackson, who had for some 
years been a leading member of the bar in 
Central Michigan. Mr. FitzG erald was admit- 
ted to the bar in Jackson in 1858 and prac- 
ticed there some two years, when he removed 
to Marshall, where he built up a large and 
lucrative practice. He was elected Prosecut- 
ing Attorney of Calhoun county in 1860 and 
re-elected in 1862 and in 1868 was elected a 
member of the State Senate, serving during 
that term, but declining a renomination. In 
1873 he became a member of the law firm of 
Champlin, Butterfield & FitzG erald at Grand 
Rapids. His new location furnished a broader 
and more active field than the place he had 
left, and he at once took position among the 
leading members of the Grand Rapids bar, 
and has ever since retained the same. Upon 
the dissolution of the partnership above men- 
tioned, Mr. FitzGerald was alone in practice 




JOHN C. FITZ GERALD. 

until his son-in-law, Edmund D. Barry, be- 
came associated with him under the present 
firm name of FitzGerald & Barry. In 1884 
Mr. FitzGerald was the Republican candidate 
for Congress in the fifth district, but was de- 
feated by Charles C. Comstock under the 
Democratic-Greenback combination of that 
year, which cut the usually decisive Republi- 
can majority in the state down to some 3,300 
votes. Miss Addie F. Taylor, daughter of 
Reuben and Harriet Taylor, of Albion, be- 
came Mrs. FitzGerald in 1859. Their only 
offspring is Addie B., wife of Edmund D. 
Barry, above mentioned. The memoranda 
from which the brief sketch was Written says 
that the subject of it "wants no flattery/' The 
truth is not flattery and the simple record of a 
good man's life is the highest eulogy. The 
biographer is not interdicted from saying that 
according to the memoranda before him, the 
lady whom Mr. FitzGerald chose for his wife 
has contributed largely to his business and 
professional success and to the rounding oiit 
of a character which commands universal re- 
spect and esteem. 



M.EJS U-t ritUUrXiXliOO. 




HON. WILrLIAiM SUTHERLAND. 

SUTHERLAND, HON. WILLIAM. 
Hon. William Sutherland, ''the original Pin- 
gree man of Bay coimty, Michigan/' was 
bom on a farm in Kawkawlin, Bay county, 
March 8, 1863. He has lived there and been 
a farmer in that county all his life, and only 
in the past six years has he taken an active in- 
terest in politics. His education was acquired 
in the district schools of Kawkawlin, and later 
he attended the public school of Bay City. He 
comes from a family of Democrats, his father 
at one time being a candidate on the Demo- 
cratic ticket for the state senate. When young 
Sutherland was about 13 years of age, though, 
circumstances changed at least one member of 
his family from the Democratic to the Repub- 
lican party, and that member was young Will- 
iam. He attended a Democratic campaign 
meeting at that age, and lined up wth the 
other boys in the rear of the hall to listen to 
the eloquence of the various speakers. Grad- 
ually the room filled with the elder people, 
and the boys were forced back against the 
wall, and at last, as the crowd grew in size 
they crowded the youngsters out of the room 
altogether. Settled at this, young Sutherland 
forswore all allegiance to the political .creed 



and politics of his parent and determined that 
when he became a voter he would become 
identified with the Republican party, which 
determination he has adhered to with rigid 
tenacity, his fidelity to the Republican party 
never having been questioned. He has worked 
for the party tooth and nail and has acted as 
Republican Senatorial Committeeman from 
the Twenty-fourth District for six years, and 
is at present chairman of the committee, and 
also chairman of the Township Committee of 
Monitor ToAvnship. 

Mr. Sutherland still operates his farm, and 
deals in real estate. He has a keen eye for in- 
vestments, and for some years has been buy- 
ing and selling large tracts of timber in the 
Upper Peninsula of Michigan, having had 
some experience as a lumberman in Upper 
Michigan when he was a young man and thus 
being acquainted with timber values. 

Sutherland is a Scotch name, and one that 
has been prominent in the history of Scotland. 
The elder Sutherland came to this country 
from Scotland when he was a lad of nini^, 
and located at Woodstock, Ontario, coming to 
Michigan in 1852 and settling in Kawkawlin. 
He was county commissioner of Bay county 
for five years and supervisor of Kawkawlin 
Township for eleven years, and for thirty-four 
years a school director in his county. The 
mother came from England when she was 12 
years of age. 

William Sutherland married Miss Ida Van 
Alstine, daughter of C. A. Van Alstine, at 
West Bay City, Michigan, August 28, 1885. 
He has four children, Mabol, aged 13 years; 
Ethel, aged 11 years; John, aged 9 years, and 
Taylor, aged 1 year. 

Mr. Sutherland belongs to the Masonic Fra- 
ternity, the Elks, Foresters and Woodmen of 
the World. He was elected to House of 1889- 
1900 by a vote of 2,764, against John 
Washer, Democratic - People's - Union-Silver 
candidate, who received 2,468 votes. He is 
popular in Lansing, and recognized as an 
honest, plain-spoken man, anxious to further 
all measures for the benefit of the people of 
his district and state. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



391 



McMILLAAT, JAMES. James McMillan, 
senior United States Senator from Michigan, 
was born of Scotch parents in Hamilton, 
Ontario, May 12, 1838. His father was a 
Presbyterian elder, and a man of thrift, enter- 
prise and intelligence. He gave his son a 
grammar school education, supplemented by 
an apprenticeship in a hardware store, and 
Avhen 17 years old started him for Detroit, 
Avith letters of introduction to business men 
there. The gift of handling men was born 
in James McMillan; he has always been able 
to work with others to accomplish results in 
such a Avay as to have all those associated with 
liim participate in the rewards. He has gone 
through life helping others at the same time 
that he helped himself, and in hundreds of in- 
stances he has started young men in business 
or re-established men overtaken by misfor- 
tune. Irom clerk in a hardware store, he 
became purchasing agent for a railroad, then 
he handled the work of extending the Detroit 
• & Milwaukee Railroad to Grand Haven, and 
in the sixties he began building freight cars. 
From small beginnings this grew to be the 
largest industry in Detroit; and to this interest 
Mr. McMillan added the Detroit & Cleveland 
iS^avigation Company, the Detroit Dry Dock 
Company, several lake transportation com- 
panies, the building of the international bridge 
at Sault Ste. Marie and the Duluth, South 
Shore & Atlantic Railway across the Upper 
Peninsula, and various other enterprises. En- 
grossing as was his business, he was never at a 
loss for time to devote to public interests; and 
his gifts to public and private charities have 
always been proportionate to his means. His 
gifts to the State University, the Agricultural 
College, Albion College, and towards the 
establishment of Grace Hospital, have been 
notably large. 

On the death of Zachariah Chandler, Mr. 
McMillan was called to the leadership of the 
Republican party in Michigan. His has been 
a leadership maintained by the repeated choice 
or calls of his party, which has recognized in 
him a man easy to w^ork with, and one who 
tolerates the largest possible right to indi- 
vidual opinion among those who are striving 
for a common object. 

On entering the United States Senate in 
1889, Mr. McMillan left to his capable sons 
the more active management of business af- 




JAMES McMillan. 

fairs, although never ceasing to take a keen 
personal interest in every branch of the 
timnerous activities with which his name was 
associated. Given to action rather than 
speech, and quick to see the salient points of 
every plan proposed. Senator McMillan has 
come to be one of the recognized powers of the 
Senate. This is shown by the fact that for the 
past six years he has served continuously on 
those caucus committees that have the adjust- 
ment of party matters. When he had been in 
the Senate but two years he was called to suc- 
ceed Senator Ingalls as chairman of the Com- 
mittee on the District of Columbia, and with 
that earnest devotion to duty that character- 
izes 'all of his relations in life, he has already 
accomplished many improvements for the 
National Capital and has laid the foundations 
for many others. The government of the 
District being wholly in the hands of Con- 
gress, the District Committee of the Senate is 
the busiest continuously of any of the commit- 
tees of that body. Less exacting as to time, 
but not as to the problems presented, are the 
Committees on Commerce, on Naval Affairs, 
and on Relations with Cuba, of which Senator 
McMillan also is a member. 

In social life Senator and Mrs. McMillan 
occupy the position that cultivation, wealth 
and eminently social natures command. He 
was married in 1860 to Miss Mary Wetmore. 



S»2 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 



1 


^^^^Bf 






1 


^^^■^'^ 




;'^-'- «>;»-. 


^^^1 




1 


B 


^^^^I^^^^^H 




H 


ip 






^^Hi 


l^^9^^'^ 


'' ^^ **"^^^B 




,p . ' 



HON. ARCHIBALD JAMES SCOTT. 

SCOTT, AKCHIBALD J. Archibald J. 
Scott was born in Canada and came to the 
States in infancy, and was raised in Water- 
town, Wis. At an early age he enlisted in a 
AVisconsin regiment and served to the close of 
the war. In 1866 he went to Hancock, Mich., 
where for a year or two he found employment 
in the saw mills of the locality. In 1867 he 
obtained employment in a drug store, and for 
two years was employed in the business in 
Houghton and Marquette counties. In 1869 
he opened a drug store on his own account in 
Hancock, and has built up what is probably 
the largest and most profitable drug business 
in the Upper Peninsula. 

Mr. Scott, or Archie Scott, as he is fami- 
liarly called throughout the Upper Peninsula, 
has always taken great interest in municipal 
affairs, particularly in matters pertaining to 



the fire department. The city of Hancock 
today has a fire department built up under his 
care, which in proportion to its size is second 
to none in the State. He is the chief of the 
department and has been for the past twenty- 
five years, and as long as he remains at the 
head of it, the people of Hancock feel that 
they will enjoy an immunity from disastrous 
fires or conflagrations. He has just resigned 
the presidency of the Upper Peninsula Fire- 
man's Association, which is one of the largest 
and most successful associations of its kind 
in the western States. He is also captain of 
the Hancock hose team, and although he has 
passed the half century post in life he is still 
sprinting with his hose team in the tourna- 
ments. 

In politics Mr. Scott is a Democrat, and 
although living in a Kepublican township has 
for twenty consecutive years been elected 
supervisor over his Kepublican opponent, and 
was for years the only Democrat holding a 
seat on the board of supervisors in the Kepubli- 
can stronghold of Houghton county. Besides 
being supervisor of the township and chief of 
the fire department he is also serving his 
fourth term as mayor of the city. Mr. Scott 
is very popular with the masses, and in every 
undertaking pertaining to public affairs he 
can rely upon the support of the people by a 
large majority with a certainty that his op- 
ponents have learned not to combat him. 

In 1880 Mr. Scott was married to Sallie 
I. Clause, of Philadelphia. Five children have 
been born to them, Archie J., Walter C, Flor- 
ence L., Lillian and Jean Stuart. The boys 
died in infancy. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



893 



ALLEN, CHARLES TRYON. The fam- 
ily of Aliens of which Charles T. Allen is a 
representative were emigrants from Vermont 
to Saratoga county, New York (Winthrop 
Allen the head). His father, Ovid Allen, as- 
sisted in building the first salt sheds in Syra- 
cuse. The family moved from Clyde, Wayne 
county, N. Y., to Coldwater, Mich., in May, 
1855. His father soon after assumed charge 
of the bridge and warehouse construction for 
the Michigan Southern railroad, which posi- 
tion he held for several years. 

Charles T. Allen was born in the town of 
Galen, Wayne county, N. Y., June 23, 1847, 
and came to Coldwater with his parents in 
1855. At 12 years of age he earned his first 
dollar piling wood for the railroad company 
and shoveling wheat in an elevator. Mean- 
time he picked up the art of telegraphy and 
held positions during the civil war at Edger- 
ton, Ohio, South Bend, Ind., Goshen, Ind., 
White Pigeon, Mich., and Elkhart, Ind. He 
quit railroading in 1865. During the winter 
of 1866 and 1867 he taught district school in 
^No. 8, called Camfield Fesk's district, near 
Coldwater. He graduated in the scientific 
course from the Coldwater High School in 
1867. Soon after he engaged with Lawyer 
Rose & Son, bankers, at Coldwater. After 
two years with the bank he left and took 
charge of his father's farm, three miles south- 
west of Coldwater, for one year. He was then 
invited to assist in starting the Southern 
Michigan Ifational bank at Coldwater, as as- 
sistant cashier. He resigned this to take the 
cashiership of the Union City E^ational Bank 
at Union City, Mich. This was in 1871. He 
held the position until 1883, and resigned to 
fill a similar position in the City Bank of Bat- 
tle Creek. He resigned this position after 
two years and made an extended trip through 
the west, obtaining valuable experiences. In 
1887 he engaged in the manufacturing busi- 
ness, which he has since followed very success- 
fully. 

In the spring of 1889 he bought out the 
controlling stock in the Battle Creek Machin- 
ery Company, which had been a losing con- 




CHARLES TRYON ALLEN. 

cern for many years, and brought it up to a 
dividend paying concern. It is here that Mr. 
Allen showed his mechanical inventiveness, 
having practically made the first successful 
steam pump, and is considered the pioneer of 
all the steam pumps made in Battle Creek at 
this date. Mr. Allen appears to have inher- 
ited a special gift for organization and sys- 
tem, his organization of the steam pump busi- 
ness of Battle Creek having given to that city 
a world-wide renown in that particular line. 
He still continues to manage his business, be- 
ing at this time engaged in promoting the in- 
terests of the Union Steam Pump Company 
as its manager. 

The enterprises which he has handled have 
always been successful in the end, although 
far from it in the beginning, his factory being 
the only one in Battle Creek which turns its 
wheels daily, never shutting down during the 
panic of 1893. 

Mr. Allen is a Kepublican in politics but 
has always avoided office. He is a member of 
the Knights of Pythias, In 1886 he married 
Miss Carrie F. Fray, and has one daughter, 
Beniti, who is in school. 



m^ 



MB% OF PEOGKESS. 




JAMES CHAMPION ESLOW. 

ESLOW, JAMES CHAMPION. The 
name Eslow was originally and remotely Ger- 
man, but as the family became English the 
name in England was spelled Islow. The 
time of their emigration to America is not 
definitely known. Champion Eslow, father 
of James C, was a blacksmith by trade and re- 
moved from Palmyra, 'N, Y., to Homer, 
Mich., about 1835, where he plied the two 
vocations of blacksmith and farmer. Milton 
Barney, then driving a stage between Homer 
and Detroit, suggested to Mr. Eslow that there 
was some money in handling plows, receiving 
them in parts and putting them together for 
use. Barney got the stock for him on time, 
and the profits on the venture enabled him to 
buy enough timber in the rough to build a 
house. This timber he ^^scored and hewed'^ 
during leisure time in the fall of 1836, and in 
December of that year he hired six teams and 
moved his house, material and family to Al- 
bion. He there bought a lot, and within a 
week hM his house up and occupied. He 
built a blacksmith's shop on the rear of his 
lot and set up business, which he continued 
until 1848, when he sunk his small means in 
a mercantile venture. In 1852, with the son 
as a partner, the firm of C. & J. 0. Eslow be- 
gan the manufacture of wagons, etc., doing a 
successful business for 25 years. The father 
died January 19, 1880, the mother having 
died in August, 1871. 

James Champion Eslow was born at Homer 



June 14, 1836. His early education was lim- 
ited, and was acquired up to the age of 20 
during intervals of work at Albion schools, 
with some time at Albion College. In 1862, 
while still a partner with his father, he 
branched out alone in the oil business, and 
later severing his business relations with his 
father, he dealt in lumber by retail, and estab- 
lished a wholesale trade in oils, cheese and salt 
meats, and acquired considerable real estate 
interests. In 1867 he built a hotel which he 
managed for four years in connection with his 
other business. In 1879 and '80, by reason 
of failing health, which had been evident for 
some years, he passed some months at sani- 
tariums at Dansville, N. Y., and at Battle 
Creek. In 1885 he retired from active busi- 
ness, confining himself to real estate and in- 
surance. 

Mr. Eslow has been a Republican since, at 
the age of 18, he attended the first Republican 
convention '^under the oaks" at Jackson, in 
1854. He was a delegate to the state conven- 
tion in Detroit, which nominated Gen. Alger 
for governor in 1884, and attended the Repub- 
lican national convention at Minneapolis when 
Gen. Harrison Avas nominated for a second 
term in 1892. He is a director in the First 
National Bank of Albion, and is generally a 
real estate owner and capitalist, and is an 
ancient member of the Order of Oddfellows. 
Miss Lottie Pierce, daughter of William 
Pierce, of Burlington, near Albion, was a 
student at Albion College, from which she 
graduated June 13, 1860, and at 3 p. m. was 
married to J. C. Eslow. She became a mem- 
ber of the Alumni Association of the college, 
and on the evening of the same day became 
its president, remaining so until her death, 
August 27, 1871. Mr. Eslow has two sons — 
William C, connected with his father in busi- 
ness at Albion, and J. Arthur, a resident of 
Charlevoix, who is a contractor and has been 
in government employ in connection with 
works on the great lakes. 

Mr. Eslow is desirous of tracing his ancestry 
and would be glad to hear from anyone bear- 
ing the name of Eslow or Islow. His moth- 
er's ancestors bore the name of Myers, their 
history running back to 1770. One of them, 
James Myers, was a contractor on the Erie 
canal, and later lieutenant-governor and a 
judge in Ohio. Another, Samuel Myers, as 
a member of the common council of Chicago, 
was the first to suggest raising the grade of the 
city with a view to drainage, and was thought 
to be crazy, but his crazy idea is now the sal- 
vation of the city. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



896 



EVERARD, HERBERT HENSON. Mr. 
Everard is a member of the firm of Ihling 
Bros. & Everard, wholesale stationers, blank 
book manufacturers and printers, of Kalama- 
zoo. He was born in that city December 6, 
1858. His father, John H. Everard, died at 
Kalamazoo in November, 1897. His mother, 
Henrietta McBride, is still living. His edu- 
cation was received in the public schools of 
Kalamazoo and in Kalamazoo College. While 
at school he felt an inspiration for the art and 
mystery of printing, procured an amateur 
outfit which he put up at home, mastered the 
primary art of handling the type without in- 
struction and published an amateur monthly 
paper, setting the type and doing the printing 
himself. He became so interested in his 
juvenile enterprise and in the craft which was 
a part of it, that he had little relish for study, 
and at the age of seventeen he left college 
and secured immediate employment in the of- 
fice of the Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph, where 
he remained a year and a half. In 1879, with 
his then knowledge of the business, he started 
in for himself under the name of H. H. Ever- 
ard & Co., doing a general job printing and 
stationery business up to 1887. At that time 
he combined his interests with those of Ihling 
Bros., under the firm name as above, so that 
he has been continuously in the line of busi- 
ness to which he first felt the spirit moving 
him for twenty-three out of his forty two years 
of life, which may be fairly termed a case of 
natural selection. While Mr. Everard is a 
busy man, he has always found time to devote 
to the welfare and advancement of the city's 
interests, has been active in promoting busi- 
ness industries and has assisted in organizing 




HERBERT HENSON EVERARD. 

many of these that have placed Kalamazoo in 
rank with other cities of the State as a manu- 
facturing and business center. He is a direc- 
tor in the Kalamazoo National Bank and in 
the Bryant Paper Company of Kalamazoo, 
and has interests in several other commercial 
and industrial enterprises. He served two 
years, 1890-92, as a member of the Kalamazoo 
City Council and was five years a member of 
the School Board and two years its president. 
He is a 32 degree member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity, a Knights Templar, a member of the 
order of Elks, and of the Knights of Pythias. 
Miss Althea Vande Walker, daughter of 
John Vande Walker, of Kalamazoo, became 
Mrs. Everard May 18, 1880. They have six 
children, Ethel, Alice, Henrietta, Eleanor, 
Robert H., and Mary Ellen, the first being 
sixteen years of age and the last an infant of 
but a few months. 



nm 



MEN or PROGEESS. 




JOHN M. C. SMITH. 



SMITH, JOHN M. 0. Mr. Smith is a son 
of the Emerald Isle, having been born at 
Greencastle, County Londonderry, Ireland, 
February 6, 1853. His parents, Eichard and 
Barbara McMunn Smith, both of whom are 
still living, came to America when the son 
was two years old, locating in Plymouth, Ohio, 
where the early boyhood of the younger Smith 
was passed and where he enjoyed the usual 
school advantages. In 1867 the family re- 
moved to a farm in Benton township, Eaton 
county, Mich., where the son passed the suc- 
ceeding five years of his life at farm work, at- 
tending school at Potterville during the win- 
ters. The family then (1872) removed to 
Charlotte, where the younger Smith eniployed 
his time at mason work during the summer for 
several seasons, attending the High School 
during the winters. In 1877 he entered the 
literary department of the University at Ann 
Arbor, remaining there two years. He subse- 
quently studied law in the offices of Barbour 
& Eexf ord and C. J. O'Flynn at Detroit, and 



was admitted to practice there in October, 
1883, since which time he has been in active 
practice in Charlotte, his home town. 

His efforts, however, have not been wholly 
confined to his legal practice, as he has been 
an active promoter of all enterprises looking 
to the growth and advancement of the city of 
Charlotte, which in point of location is one of 
the most beautiful in central Michigan. He 
is president of the First National Bank of 
Charlotte, which was established in 1869 by 
Hon. E. S. Lacy, late Controller of the Cur- 
rency of the United States, and now president 
of the Bankers' ISTational Bank of Chicago. 

Mr. Smith has always been a Eepublican 
in politics, is a member of all the fraternal or- 
ders and was twice elected Eminent Comman- 
der of Charlotte Commandery of Knights 
Templar. 

Miss Lena Parkhurst, daughter of Major 
John D. Parkhurst, of Charlotte, became 
Mrs. Smith in 1888. Their children are 
Lucile, aged ten years, and Wm. P., three 
vears. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



mi 



HARISOlf, BEVERLY D., M. D. Born 
at Canton, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., Dr. 
Harison comes of sturdy old English and 
Colonial stock, being descended from Francis 
Harison, of Colonial days, who in turn was a 
son of Sir Richard Harison, of Hurst House, 
Hurst, Berkshire, England, and a member of 
the Privy Chamber in Ordinary to King 
Charles II. Francis Harison came to New 
York in 1708, and from him the subject of this 
sketch is directly descended. His father's 
family, having removed to Canada, Dr. Hari- 
son was educated at Bishop's College School, 
Lennoxville, and at Trinity College School, 
Port Hope, the ^^Rugby" and ^^Eton" of Can- 
ada, and later at Trinity College, Toronto, and 
Toronto University, from the latter of which 
he graduated in medicine in 1882. He then 
became assistant to Dr. James Thorburn, of 
Toronto, and later to Dr. Chas. H. Bonnell, 
of Bobcaygeon, Ont., with whom he remained 
three years. From 1885 to 1888 he was sur- 
geon and physician to the Spanish River Lum- 
ber Company, at Spanish River, Ont., remov- 
ing to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., in 1888, where 
he has since been in practice. While Dr. 
Harison has made an enviable record as a phy- 
sician, he has made a record with the several 
schools of practice in the State by his agency 
in procuring the passage of the Act by the 
Legislature designed to elevate the standard 
of the profession. Various efforts had been 
made at successive sessions of the Legislature 
to procure legislation on the subject, but with- 
out success. In 1899, however, the State Med- 
ical Society decided upon a further effort, and 
appointed a committee on medical legislation 
with Dr. Harison as chairman. He prepared 
the bill which was finally passed into law, 
after consultation with the representatives of 
the three schools, the regular, the homeopathic 
and the eclectic. The bill was known at the 
time as the Chandler Medical bill, from Rep- 
resentative Chandler, who introduced it in 
the House, but Dr. Harison gave it his per- 
sonal attention and paid all the expenses in 
connection with its passage. The law estab- 
lishes a State Board of Registration, before 




BEVERLY D. HARISON, M/.D. 

which every person must pass an examination 
before being allowed to practice medicine in 
the State, the object being to weed out the 
large number of so-called quacks, and those 
imperfectly educated. The Board of State 
Registration having become a fact, the efforts 
of Dr. Harison received merited recognition 
by his appointment as member and secretary 
thereof; he is also member and president of 
the Board of Trustees of the Upper Peninsula 
Hospital for the Insane at Newberry. He is 
also vice-president and chairman of the execu- 
tive and member of the judiciary council of 
the Michigan St^te Medical Society, and is a 
member of the American Medical Association 
and ex-president of the Upper Peninsula 
Medical Society. He is health officer of the 
city of Sault Ste. Marie, is coroner of Chip- 
pewa county, and medical superintendent of 
the Sault Ste. Marie General Hospital, chief 
surgeon to the Michigan & Lake Superior 
Power Company, of Sault Ste. Marie, and 
local surgeon for several railroads, as well as 
consulting surgeon for many of the larger in- 
stitutions of the State. Dr. Harison was 
married in 1889 to a daughter of Hon. Justice 
Lister, of the Court of Appeals of Ontario. 
Dr. and Mrs. Harison have but one child, a 
daughter. 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




HORATIO SAWYER EARLE. 

EAKLE, HOKATIO SAWYEE. Mr. 
Earle is a Detroiter but a native of Vermont, 
having been born at Mt. Holly, in that State, 
February 14, 1855. He is the youngest of a 
family of three sons and a daughter, offspring 
of Nelson C. and Eliza A. (Sawyer) Earle. 
He traces his genealogy back to the Earles in 
England, who were prominent among the agi- 
tators in demanding from Charles II. the 
"Subjects Writ of Eight,'' second only to 
Magna Oharta, leading to the permanent es- 
tablishment of the right to the writ of habeas 
corpus. He is eighth in descent from Ealph 
and Joan Earle, who landed near Providence, 
E. I., about 1636, after a two years' sojourn 
in Holland. Mr. Earle followed the farm 
until twenty-one years of age, his education 
having been that of the district school, with a 
course at Black Eiver Academy, at Ludlow, 
Vt. Later he attended a night drafting 
school, which he alleges drafted him o]xt of the 
harder lines of labor into comparatively easy 
life. He learned the trade of an iron moulder 
and had charge of foundries at Bradford, Vt., 
and Chicopee Falls, Mass. This practical 
knowledge, coupled with his knowledge of 
drafting, led him into a line of invention, and 
he has patents that are very productive. In 
1886 he started out as a commercial traveler 
for a Massachusetts house. He came to De- 
troit in 1889 and has sold the entire product 
of an edge tool manufactory in the State of 
Maine, who manufacture goods invented and 



patented by him, with large quantities of other 
lines of hardware, always working on com- 
mission. He has been in active business in 
Detroit, two years as head of the Earle & 
Scranton Company, Limited, and two years 
with the Earle Cycle Company, Limited, be- 
ing associated in these enterprises with other 
citizens. The first was a success and was sold 
out to Port Huron parties. The other was a 
'^gift enterprise," in that the money invested 
was given away. As the fruit of his various 
inventions and business enterprises he has ac- 
cumulated quite a little of this world's goods. 

Mr. Earle sets not a little by his record in 
the moral realm. A few years ago he indited 
the motto: "A happy man is he that causes 
others to happy be," and then swore that sen- 
timent should govern his future acts toward 
his fellowmen. He early came to disfavor 
severity in dealing with children, believing 
that their will power should be cultivated 
rather than broken, and that they should not 
be punished for little transgressions until they 
should promise never to do the like again or 
plead sorry. He is a member of the Metho- 
dist Church, but not of the ascetic order, but 
one that loves all Nature and can see the good- 
ness of the Creator in all good things. He 
belongs to Ashlar Lodge (Masonic) of Detroit, 
Peninsular Chapter and Damascus Comman- 
dery K. T. Also to Michigan Lodge No. 1, 1. 
O. O. F. He is Chief Consul of the Michi- 
gan Division League of American Wheelmen. 
Is a Eepublican in politics, although voting 
independently where the fitness of men is con- 
cerned. He has always been a student of 
economic subjects and has never lost his sym- 
pathy with the farmer and laborer, and this is 
one of the reasons that has led him to take 
hold during the past few years of the labor, 
highway and convict labor problems. He has 
been a leading promoter of the good roads 
movement in Michigan. In the several rela- 
tions of life he has always preferred to lead 
rather than to follow the lead of others. He is 
an attractive speaker and began speaking in 
lyceums when a boy of sixteen. 

Mr. Earle has been twice married, Agnes L., 
daughter of Leonard H. and Jane Lincoln, of 
Plymouth, Vt., to whom he was married in 
1874 (died 1878), was the mother of two chil- 
dren, Georgie Anna, died in infancy, and 
Eomeo H., a student in the Michigan College 
of Medicine and Surgery. His second mar- 
riage was in 1882 to Anna M., daughter of 
George A. and Eliza J. Keyes, of Chicopee 
Falls, Mass. Their one son, George L., is a 
student in the Detroit High School. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



399 



GLAVIN, HON. JOHN MAURICE. 

John Maurice Glaviiij of New Buffalo, Mich., 
is a native of the County of Limerick, Ireland, 
where he was born March 25, 1833. He came 
to this country in 1848, making up his mind 
to leave Ireland while waiting in Dublin to bid 
one of his sisters and her family good-bye. At 
the last moment he declined to part with them, 
and came over on the same vessel. His first 
year in America was spent in Chicago, 111., 
and later he went to Indiana to help in the 
construction of the Goshen Air Line Railroad. 
He came to Michigan and located as a citizen 
of Berrien county in 1857. 

John M. Glavin, as a boy, was quiet and 
studious. His education was commenced in 
the common school near his native town, and 
in Dublin, and when he came to this country 
he took advantage of the fine educational op- 
portunities presented by American institutions 
and studied for a time in the University of 
Notre Dame, Indiana. Mathematics was his 
favorite study and he early acquired a pro- 
ficiency in that branch of learning. 

This gave him a good understanding of the 
business in which he made such a success, that 
of a railroad contractor, for he was able to 
figure closely and see his way to a profitable 
ending of any undertaking in which he was 
about to embark. 

He became a construction engineer, work- 
ing first on the Goshen Air Line and later on 
the Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad. He was 
for a time constructing engineer on what is 
now the Chicago & West Michigan Railroad, 
and later on the Port Huron & Northwestern 
Railroad, and then on the St. Joe Valley Rail- 
road. He held large contracts for the con- 
struction of these roads. In 1870 Mr. Glavin 
went to Washington and with the help of 
Senator Chandler and Representative Stogh- 
ton, secured an appropriation of $60,000 for 
the construction of a harbor at New Buffalo. 
This was afterwards dropped from the ap- 
propriation list, but with a perseverance that 
has characterized his whole life, Mr. Glavin 
in 1880 again visited the national capitol and 
not only had the New Buffalo harbor appro- 




HON. JOHN MAURICE GLAVIN. 

priation added to the list again, but had $10,- 
000 more tacked on to it. Mr. Glavin owns 
a beautiful farm near New Buffalo and gives 
most of his time in operating it. He raises a 
fine quality of fruit and general .produce. 

He was supervisor of Chickaming township, 
Berrien county, from 1861 to 1865, and 
elected to the Legislature of 1866 by the 
largest majority ever given in his district. He 
was county surveyor of Berrien county, 1877- 
1884; supervisor of New Buffalo, 1880, 1884, 
1885, 1880, 1887, 1894, 1895 and 1896, dur- 
ing w^hich latter term he was on the commit- 
tee of construction that built the Berrien 
County Court House at St. Joe. 

Mr. Glavin married Miss Helen Scanlon, 
daughter of Dennis and Marguerite Scanlon, 
Sept. 5, 1856. Their children are Mary 
H., Helen, Emma, Eva, John, Grace, Thomas 
and Frederick Glavin. John is chief clerk 
and cashier in the M. C. depot at South Bend, 
Ind. 

On his mother's side Mr. Glavin traces his 
ancestry to the noted O'Keefe family, irotii 
which the mother of the great Irish liberator, 
Daniel O'Connor, sprang: 



4^ 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




DR. WILLIAM'JAMESIDUBT. 

DUFF, DK. WILLIAM JAMES. Dr. 

William James Duff, a respected citizen of 
Port Huron, Michigan, was born in Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, August 17, 1856. His public 
school education was received in that city, in 
Detroit and in Port Huron, Michigan, being 
later supplemented by a course in the Medical 
Department of the University of Michigan, 
from which he graduated. 

Dr. Duff was president for two terms of the 
board of health in Port Huron and elected 
to the State Legislature on the Kepublican 
ticket, sessions of 1899-1900. 

When the recent rupture with Spain oc- 
curred. Dr. Duff, who had for some time 
been a member of the Michigan National 
Guard, and at different times was first and 
second lieutenant and captain of Company F, 
Third Michigan if. G., enlisted as a private 
soldier in Co. F, Thirty-third Michigan Vol- 
unteer Infantry, when his company was mus- 
tered into the L^nited States service. 

Although he was ill most of the time that 
his regiinent was in Cuba, he managed to keep 
out of the hospital and attend to his duties as a 
soldier, but the campaign in the alternate 
sun and rain of our new possessions caused him 
to lose weight rapidly so that although he 



weighed 176 pounds when he went away he 
came home weighing 101 pounds. He was 
confined to his bed from Sept. 4 to Nov. 
28, after his return from Cuba, during 
Avhich time he was elected to the legislature, 
thus escaping any severe campaign work in 
the political battlefield. 

This was a pleasant relief, for his regiment 
(the Thirty-third Michigan) had seen active 
service in the heat of the Santiago campaign, 
and he was not in a talkative condition, and 
unfit for the warmth of a political fight. So 
popular was the candidate offered by the Ke- 
publican party that the Democrats refused to 
put up any man against him, so every vote 
cast was for Dr. Duff. 

While the regiment was in Cuba, all of the 
surgeons, through sickness and other causes, 
were detached from duty, leaving the regi- 
ment wholly without medical attendance, so 
in addition to his regular duties as a non-com- 
missioned officer, to w^hich rank he had been 
promoted. Dr. Duff volunteered to care for the 
men, and won for himself the esteem and love 
of every man in the regiment. 

The news of this reaching St. Clair county, 
in appreciation of his services the citizens pre- 
sented Dr. Duff with a diamond studded gold 
medal of appropriate emblematic character 
inscribed, "To Corporal William J. Duff, M. 
D., from the citizens of Port Huron, in appre- 
ciation of his professional devotion to the mem- 
bers of Co. F, 33rd Mich. Vol. Inf., during the 
Santiago campaign of 1898." 

Dr. Duff married Mrs. Minnie Finney, 
daughter of Mr. Koss, of Hamilton, Ontario, 
at Sedalia, Missouri, June 1, 1899. 

Dr. Duft' was recommended by the brigade 
surgeon of his brigade to the United States 
medical department, on account of his dis- 
tinguished services, and could doubtless have 
a commission in the regiilar service if he were 
willing to accept it. He enjoys an extensive 
practice in Port Huron, is a member of the 
Congregational church of that city, belongs 
to the Masons, Elks and Maccabee lodges in 
Port Huron. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



401 



VAN KIPER, JACOB J. The little 
kingdom of Holland is the country that fur- 
nished the prefix Van to the family name, as 
other countries have their peculiar patrony- 
mic. Mr. Van Riper's paternal ancestry, 
therefore, is traced to Holland, a country to 
which the west is so largely indebted for its 
ideas of civil and religious liberty and its devo- 
tion to education. His ancestors, half a dozen 
generations back, were early settlers in New 
York while under the Dutch sovereignty and 
known as IS) ew Amsterdam. His father, John 
Van Riper, was born in New Jersey in 1811 
and was the inventor of a power loom for 
weaving ingrain carpets His mother was 
Leah Zabriskie, of Paterson, N. J., her father 
having been a political refugee from Poland. 
Mr. Van Riper was born at Haverstraw, Rock- 
land county, N. Y., March 8, 1838. His 
early education was received in the public 
schools of New York City, being, however, of 
a catchy or broken character after his twelfth 
year. At this age he began to work in a car- 
pet factory at $4 per week, alternating his 
work with school attendance for four years. 
He then became clerk in a dry goods store in 
New York, during his school vacations, de- 
voting his evenings to study. In the fall of 
1855 he became a student at Charlottsville In- 
stitute, at Charlottsville, N. Y., and in 1860 
began reading Blackstone and decided to 
make law his profession. His father's family 
having removed to LaGrange, Cass county, 
Michigan, and his father having built a woolen 
mill there, desired the son's assistance. The 
latter therefore left school in 1857 and entered 
the mill as bookkeeper and general assistant, 
improving the two winters of 1858 and '59 by 
teaching. In the fall of 1860 he entered the 
Law Department of the University, remaining 
through the college year, and in 1861 was en- 
gaged in reading law in the office of James 
M. Spencer at Dowagiac. When the internal 
revenue system was organized as a necessity of 
the then existing war, Mr. Van Riper was ap- 
pointed deputy collector of the Fourth Michi- 
gan District, and held the position for five 
years, and was soon after appointed assistant 
assessor of internal revenue for the same dis- 
trict for the term of three years. He was ad- 




JACOB J. VAN RIPEB. 

mitted to the bar before Judge Nathaniel Ba- 
con, at Cassopolis, in 1863, and opened an 
office at Dowagiac, but removed to Buchanan 
in 1870, and in 1887 removed to Mies. He 
was in active practice at his several places of 
residence from the time of his admission to 
the bar in 1863 until he assumed the duties 
of judge of probate of Berrien county, Janu- 
ary 1, 1893, a period of over thirty years. 
Since his election as judge of probate his prac- 
tice has been confined to the necessary atten- 
tion to the business of old clients. 

Judge Van Riper was among the younger 
members of the Constitutional Convention of 
1867 and was prosecuting attorney for Ber- 
rien county two terms, 1877-80. In 1880 he 
was elected attorney-general of the state and 
re-elected in 1882. In 1880, also, he was 
appointed by Gov. Croswell a regent of the 
University, to fill a vacancy, serving in that 
office six years. He is a member of the State 
Association of Probate Judges, a member of 
the Masonic Fraternity of the Royal Atch De* 
gree and of the United Workmen. Mm Van 
Riper, to whom- he was married in 1868, ftt 
Penn township, in Cass county, was formeiiy 
Miss Emma E. Bronner, daughter of Sneob 
Bronner, of York Mills, N. T. Their chil- 
dren are : Luella, wife of A* A. WorthingtoB, 
an attorney at Buchanan; Cassiua M., attoiti^ 
and register of probate at St. Jcmph^ toa 
Adah, ait home. 



MElSr OF PliUUii-bttS. 




HON. LA.WTON THOMAS HEMANS. 

HEMA>^S, HON. LAWTON THOMAS. 
Hon. Lawton T. Hemans, mayor of Mason, 
Michigan, was first elected to that office in 
1891, when he was the youngest mayor in the 
state. In 1892 he was again nominated to 
that office ; but in the fight for municipal own- 
ership of the electric lighting plant of the 
city he was defeated. In 1897 the young 
Democrat was elected an alderman for the 
second ward of his city and in the spring of 
1899 he was again elected mayor, in which 
position he is now serving. He is only 35 
years of age, having been bom on the 4th day 
of ]!fovember, 1804, at the village of OoUa- 
mer, Onondaga county, New York, where his 
father carried on the trade of a blacksmith. 
When he was 11 months old his family re- 
moved to the township of Oneida, Eaton 
county, this state, where the father took up 
the business of farming. Three y^rs later 
the father resuming his trade, the family came 
to the city of Mason; later moving to a large 
farm which the father had previously pur- 
chased, in the township of Onondaga, he soon 
learned to know the life of a farmer's son. 
Working on the farm during the busy plant- 



ing and harvest season and attending the dis- 
trict school was the recurring routine until his 
sixteenth year, when he entered the public 
schools at Eaton Kapids. Here his experience 
was the experience of the average farmer boy. 
Working for his board ; walking the eight 
miles to his home of a Friday night to spend 
Saturday and Sunday with his parents and to 
luxuriate in the home cooking and then walk 
back again of a Sunday night or Monday 
morning. In June, 1884, he graduated from 
the High School and from thence until the 
fall of 1887 his time was occupied as a teacher 
in the district schools of Aurelius township 
during the winter months and as a hand upon 
the farm during the summer. In 1886 he 
began to read law. Judge Huntington, of 
Mason, kindly gave him access to his library, 
from which he obtained books for perusal 
when not otherwise employed. In the fall of 
1887 he entered the Law Department of the 
University of Michigan. At the close of his 
course there he was elected one of the Circuit 
Court commissioners of Ingham county and 
opened an office at Mason. In the spring of 
1889 he formed a copartnership with John M. 
Corbin, of Eaton Kapids, and under the firm 
name of Corbin & Hemans this firm continued 
until the spring of 1890. Mr. Hemans then 
returned to Mason, where he purchased the 
library of Huntington & Henderson, which 
had been the leading legal firm of Mason, and 
has practiced his profession in that city ever 
since. 

Mr. Hemans married Miss Minnie P. Hill, 
daughter of William J. Hill, at Onondaga, 
Michigan, in 1889. They have one son, 
Charles Sidney. Mr. Hemans is a member 
of Lansing Lodge, B. P. O. E. John H. He- 
mans, the father of Lawton T., came to 
America in his childhood, from Banwell, Som- 
ersetshire, England. His wife's maiden name 
was Lovinia Sherwood. 

Mayor Hemans has proven himself an ex- 
cellent executive and his terms in the office he 
now holds have been greatly beneficial to the 
city. He is young, energetic and a strong be- 
liever in progressiveness. 



HISTORiaAB &EET0HES. 



ion 



DONOVAN, JOHN. Mr. Donovan boasts 
an Irish parentage, his father, Patrick Dono- 
van, having come to America at the age of 19 
from Cork, Ireland. His mother was Julia 
Scully, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The son 
was born at Hamilton, Oiitario, May 26, 1843, 
the parents removing to Youngstown, N. Y., 
during his infancy and settling in the village. 
Upon attaining school age, he attended' the 
public schools until he was 15, when he was 
apprenticed to learn the trade of a general 
mason, to one John Carter, who agreed that 
he would make the better mason if he began 
at the bottom and learned everything, and to 
make his practice consistent with his teaching, 
young Donovan was instructed in the art of 
carrying mortar and brick, breaking stone and 
mixing mortar, at a compensation of 17 cents 
per day. His father, who was a carpenter by 
trade, left the farm and resumed work at his 
trade. From 1860 to 1870 the elder Dono- 
van was employed on the government works at 
Fort Niagara, at Youngstown, N. Y., and was 
suDcrintendent of general work, ' and from 
1863 to 1865 the son was. a sub-foreman, com- 
pleting his trade there. Work was dull in 
1865, and in October the younger Donovan 
came to Michigan, locating first at Holly, 
where he worked that season, and then re- 
moved to Fenton. After the first two win- 
ters of his Michigan experiences he re- 
turned to Youngstown and became a 
teacher in the public school there. He 
remained at Fenton until 1870, doing con- 
tract work in that part of the state, and then 
moved to Flint, to become superintendent of 
the High School building. He continued his 
occupation of contractor and builder here until 
1879, but diversified his labors by teaching 
three years, 1876-79, in the parochial school 
at Flint. In 1879 he removed to "West Bay 
City and built the Lumberman's Bank build- 
ing, and a year later moved to Bay City, where 
he has since been an extensive contractor and 
builder, having built some of the more promi- 
nent blocks in that city, the Crapo, Phoenix, 
Eose, Eidotto, and the St. James Church. 
Mr. Donovan is interested, as a stockholder, 




JOHN DONOVAN. 

in the Michigan Sugar Company of Bay City, 
and is a large holder of real estate and owner 
of several business blocks in the city. He is 
a member of the Catholic Mutual Benevolent 
Association, of the Ancient Order of Hiber- 
nians and of the Knights of Columbus. He 
came to the Eoman Catholic faith by inherit- 
ance and adheres to it from conviction. Miss 
Sarah Isham, of Kennedy, N. Y., became 
Mrs. Donovan on November 11, 1873. They 
have no children. 

Mr. Donovan was elected to the lower house 
of the legislature in 1894 and enjoyed the 
distinction of being the only Democrat in that 
body at the session of 1895. The vicii^itudes 
of politics are illustrated by the fact that f torn 
having controlled the legislature in 1891, the 
Democrats had but a single representative 
there, four years later. The novelty of the 
situation in which Mr. Donovan was placed 
gave him special prominence, but no member 
of the body stood higher in the estimation of 
his associates than did he* While he had noth- 
ing to ask politically, his wish had only to be 
made known regarding any matter of legisla- 
tion to secure for it the most respectful and 
favorable consideratioii. 



MEN or FiiuuKJ!:bs. 




ALFRED JAMES DOHERTY. 

DOHERTY, ALFEED JAMES. There 
is a clear suggestion of a Celtic origin in the 
name that heads this sketch, and some experi- 
ences in the early life of Mr. Doherty show 
him poasessed of a large percentage of the 
spirit o£ independence and self-reliance that 
is characteristic of the Irish people. His 
grandfather, John Doherty, was for years cap- 
tain of an ocean line steamer, and came to 
America from the north of Ireland. His 
father, Michael Doherty, was associated with 
the Chesebrew-Bissell Company, lumber deal- 
ers on the East river, in New York City, where 
AKred J. was born May 1, 1856, and where 
his early boyhood was passed, alternating the 
ordinary home duties with school attendance. 
Later the family removed to Belfast, New 
York, where the father engaged in farming. 
Alfred J. there attended the Genesee Valley 
Seminary, from which he graduated in 1874. 
He started out for himself in 1876 and his star 
led him to Clare, Michigan, the possessor of a 



capital of $10. He found work in a sawmill, 
where he worked in all departments, from 
piling lumber to scaling logs. In the fall of 
1878 he became clerk in a dry goods store and 
a year later was granted a state teacher's cer- 
tificate, and in connection with Dennis E. 
Alward, had charge of the public schools of 
Clare during the then ensuing three years, 
and while teaching opened an insurance office. 
In 1881 he started a hardware store on a small 
scale and has conducted a prosperous business 
in that line ever since. In 1892 he became 
interested in the Clare Woodenware Com- 
pany, of which he was general manager. He 
has built several business blocks and the new 
brick opera house at Clare, and owns a farm 
of 640 acres in Vernon township, near Clare, 
on which he spends his summers, and being a 
farmer as well as a man of affairs, he has held 
the position of president of the Farmer's In- 
stitute of Clare county. He is president of 
the Clare Electric Light Company and local 
manager for the Michigan Bell Telephone 
Company. His society connections are the 
Knights of Pythias and Elks. 

In politics Mr. Doherty has always been a 
staunch Kepublican, energetically furthering 
the interests of his party and never failing in 
liberal contributions of time and money to 
every campaign. As chairman of the Ke- 
publican committee of Clare county and in 
other positions of trust he has displayed abili- 
ties which, in his case, as always, win success. 

In 1876 Mr. Doherty was married to Miss 
Alice B. Gleason at Belfast, New York. Two 
sons, Floyd and Frank, are associated with 
their father in his business affairs, the daugh- 
ter Lida is a student at Albion College, and 
the youngest son, Fred, is a schoolboy at 
home. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



OHAMBERLArN, WILLIAM. The 

Chaffiberlains were first represented in Amer- 
ica by fJacob Obamberlain, who was a resident 
of Roxbury, Massachusetts, about 1690. Erom 
him sprang Samuel, thence Moses, and again 
Moses, father of the present William Cham- 
berlain,, the latter having been born at Pem- 
broke, N. H., Feb. 7th, 1834. The Chamber- 
lains after Jacob were residents successively of 
Roxbury, Chelsea and Hopkinton, Mass., and 
Loudon, N. H. The mother of Mr. Chamber- 
lain was Mary Foster, of Canterbury, JST. Y., 
a direct descendant of Reginald Foster, who 
settled at Ipswich, Mass., in 1636. Mr. Cham- 
berlain, with some early schooling at Concord 
and some experience in selling newspapers, 
came with his parents to New Buffalo, Mich- 
igan, when he was nine years of age. Two 
years later (1845), the parents purchased a 
tract of land of 800 acres, in what is now the 
township of Three Oaks, in Berrien county. 
At the age of eleven, the son carried the mail 
on horseback from New Buffalo to Michigan 
City, and one year drove a horse on the tow- 
path. In 1847 a school was opened near the 
Chamberlain residence, which the son at- 
tended during the winter months. The family 
library was largely contained within the lids 
of the Bible, from which it was the son's duty 
and pleasure to read every morning. He was 
a good reader and became well posted in the 
sacred volume. From the age of eighteen 
until twenty-eight his vocation was that of 
farming. In 1864 he moved to the village of 
Three Oaks and became partner in a general 
store, handling also grain, wool, and general 
produce. The business firms were successively 
Chamberlain, McKee & Co., Chamberlain & 
Co., Chamberlain & Churchill, Chamberlain 
& Hatfield, and Chamberlain, Warren & Hat- 
field, banking also having been a feature of the 
business from 1864 to 1890. 

Few men have filled so many official posi- 
tions and filled them so well as Mr. Chamber- 
lain has done. He has held every township 
office in his township, except Justice of the 
Peace and Treasurer. He was one of the 
County Superintendents of the Poor, 1861-80, 
^nd postmaster at Three Oaks, 1870-72. He 




WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN. 

was elected to the lower house of the Legisla- 
ture in 1872 and again in 1^74, and in 1876 
and again in 1878 was elected to the Senate 
and was president pro tem of that body in 
1879. In 1881 he was appointed a member of 
the commission to prepare a revision of the 
tax laws. He was a member of the Board of 
Control of the State Prison, 1885-91, and on 
April 6th, 1893 was appointed warden of the 
prison, and is known throughout the United 
States as the model executive officer of penal 
institutions. He is a member of the National 
Prison Congress and of the National Confer- 
ence of Corrections and Charities, was a mem- 
ber and president of the State Association of 
Superintendents of the Poor, was for twelve 
years a member of the executive committee of 
the State Agricultural Society and was for two 
years its president. Mr. Chamberlain has 
been a promoter of business enterprises at 
Three Oaks, especially the Warren Feather- 
bone Whip Co., and the Warren-Featherbone 
Corset Co. He is a member of and assisted in 
organizing the First Congregational Church 
at Three Oaks, and was superintendent of the 
first Sunday school in the village. He cast his 
first vote for Governor Bingham in 1854 and 
has been a Eepublican ever since and is a 
member of the Michigan Club. Miss Oatoline 
S. Chamberlain of Canterbury, N. H*, became 
Mrs. Chamberlain in 1857. The family con- 
sists of four married daughters and two sond. 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




WILLIAM FABIAN McKNIGHT. 

Mcknight, willi am f abi an. One 

of the best known of the energetic attorneys of 
western Michigan, and one who has established 
himself in a very extensive practice, is Wm. F. 
McKnight of Grand Eapids, whose voice has 
been heard in the court rooms, upon the stump 
and at numerous other gatherings in all parts 
of the state. Essentially a self made man, his 
career is one well w^orthy of emulation and 
because of his ability, energy and ambitious 
devotion to his profession, his subsequent 
career will be watched with a keen interest. 

William F. McKnight was born upon the 
old family homestead in Cascade township, in 
Kent county, on July 23, 1863. His early 
days were spent in hard work upon the farm 
and his evenings in study. His early* educa- 
tion was obtained at the country schools and at 
the age of seventeen he was himself the holder 
of a teachers' certificate and a teacher in a 
country school. In the fall of 1880 he entered 
upon a four years' course in the college at Val- 
paraiso, Ind., from which he received a degree. 
During the last two years in College, his sum- 
mers were occupied with the country superin- 



tendent of schools at Valparaiso in summer 
school work, holding teachers' reviews. In 
1884-5 he was superintendent of schools at 
Kankakee, 111., and during all this time he was 
fitting himself for the profession of law. 
Entering the law department of the University 
of Michigan he was graduated in '87, and after 
a short period in the ofiice of Turner & Carroll 
in Grand Eapids, he opened an ofiice for him- 
self. Six months later he entered into the firm 
of Godwin, Adsit & McKnight, which con- 
tinued until the death of Mr. Godwin and 
the election of Mr. Adsit as circuit judge and 
of Mr. McKnight as prosecuting attorney of 
Kent county. His next legal connection was 
with Thomas F. McGarry and Congressman 
M. H. Ford, under the firm name of McGarry, 
McKnight & Ford. Upon the death of Mr. 
Ford in '92, Judge Allen B. Morse, formerly 
chief justice of the Michigan supreme court 
and later United States consul at Glasgow, 
succeeded to the firm and remained until his 
departure for his foreign service. In '97 L. 
Frank McKnight became his associate and 
this firm continued for three years, when 
James McAllister entered the partnership 
under the firm name of McKnight & McAl- 
lister. 

In politics Mr. McKnight is well known to 
the Michigan Democracy, having been an hon- 
ored and active worker in party conventions 
and councils, county, state and national. He 
was permanent chairman of the state conven- 
tion in '92, and a delegate and active partici- 
pant in the national convention in Chicago in 
'96, which nominated Mr. Bryan for the presi- 
dency, and also witnessed his second nomina- 
tion at Kansas City. He has been repeatedly 
mentioned for higher political honors. 

By years of tireless work, early and late, 
which a vigorous constitution and native en- 
ergy has enabled him to perform, and by a 
consequent success in his profession, Mr. Mc- 
Knight is now interested in a number of busi- 
ness enterprises in his home city. His social 
connections are high, and in addition to mem- 
bership in the clubs of Grand Eapids, he be- 
longs to a number of secret societies. 



HISTOBIGAL SKETCHES. 



CHAifDLEE, HON. WILLIAM. Hon. 
William Chandler, of Sault Ste. Marie, is a 
native of Michigan, having been bom in Rai- 
sin, Lenawee county, April 27, 1846. His 
parents were Ilicksite Quakers, his father, 
Thomas Chandler, who came to this state in 
1828, having been an Abolitionist and one of 
those kindly men who helped in the under- 
ground railroad system, by means of which 
many slaves were conducted to freedom. 
Young Chandler's early life was spent on a 
farm and his education was received at the 
Raisin Valley Seminary, a Quaker institution 
near his home. In 1862 he left home and 
went to Indianapolis to learn a trade, but be- 
fore he had served his apprenticeship he was 
in the wholesale paper business on his own 
account and as this business brought him in 
contact with the newspaper fraternity, the 
year 1870 found him publishing a Republi- 
can paper in Muncie, Indiana. He returned 
to Michigan in 1872 and became editor of the 
newly established Adrian Press, and when the 
paper became Democratic he joined the Ad- 
rian Times and remained with that paper until 
1875, w^hen he established the Cheboygan 
Tribune. In 1877 he was appointed by Gov. 
Croswell collector of tolls of the St. Mary's 
Falls Ship Canal, and in 1878 he established 
the Sault Ste. Marie News. When the canal 
passed into the control of the United States, 
in 1881, he was made superintendent, which 
position he held until 1885, when he resigned 
to give his entire attention to his various busi- 
ness enterprises. 

Mr. Chandler organized the Sault Savings 
Bank in 1886 and became its first cashier and 
manager. He was instrumental in the organ- 
ization of one of the earliest electric light 
plants in the country, which has made the 
Sault one of the best lighted cities in the 
United States. In 1892 he organized the 
Chandler-Dunbar Water Power Co., and he is 
now managing both plants. In 1875-76 he 
conceived the idea of improving the navigation 
of the inland lakes between Cheboygan and 
Petoskey, and the famous ^^Inland Route" is 
the result. He is president of the company 
and has been one of the chief promoters of the 
projected St. Ignace & Sault Ste. Marie rail- 
road. 

Mr. Chandler in 1886 married Miss Cata 
Oren, daughter of Charles and Sarah Oren, 
formerly of Clinton county, Ohio. They 
have two children, Thomas, aged 13 years, 
and Paulina, aged 9. Mr. Chandler is a 




HON. WILLIAM CHANDLER. 

staunch Republican, and was a member of 
the Republican State Central Committee in 
1876. 

In 1885 Mr. Chandler disposed of his news- 
paper interests and retired from the newspa- 
per business, as well as the active participation 
in political affairs. Although repeatedly urged 
to do so, it was not until 1898, when he was 
nominated as a candidate for the legislature, 
that he consented to accept a political posi- 
tion. As a member of ihe lower house, his 
abilities as a legislator were soon recognized 
and he was given charge of two of the most 
important pieces of legislation of the- session. 
The ^^Chandler Medical Bill," which became 
a law in spite of the fiercest opposition of the 
clandestine medical practitioners, made his 
name kjiown throughout the state and beyond. 
The passage of the state tax commission law, 
which is carrying into effect the platform of 
the Republican party, pledging equal ta:^- 
tion, was due to Mr. Chandler's careful and 
adroit management. With a single esccep- 
tion, every bill, both local and public, that he 
fathered, became laws. 

There have been few business enterpjrf^es^ 
especially those of a public nature^ iii Sault 
Ste. Marie, during Mr. Chandler^s residence 
there, that do not bear the impresa of hk ef- 
forts, advice and counsel, and it ig 1^roQ$ch 
these that he will be longest remembered. 



MEN UJ? ritUiztXiJiiOD. 




EDMUND C. MORRIS. 

MOKEIS, EDMUND C. Mr. Morris was 
one of a family of twelve children and early 
began the struggle of life, which, having its 
matiy ups and downs, has helped to make his 
life the success he has attained. His parents, 
Elisha E. and Margaret (Baker) Morris lived 
on a farm in Niagara county, New York, 
where Edmund C. was born, February 18, 
1847. His early years were divided between 
farm work in summer and the district school 
in winter. When less than 16 years old 
(1862) he tried to enlist as a soldier in the 
civil war but was rejected. Later on, how- 
ever, he was accepted as of sufficient age, and 
enlisted in the ISlst N. Y. Infantry. He par- 
ticipated in the battles of the Wilderness, Cold 
Harbor, Spottsylvania and Monocacy Junc- 
tion, and many others. At Monocacy Junc- 
tion he was wounded and left on the field, and 
after walking forty miles to a hospital, it was 
six days before his wounded arm was i dressed. 
He had just rejoined his regiment when Lee 
surrendered. After his discharge from the 
army in 1866 he tried his fortune in t)ie Cana- 
dian oil fields and in partnership with his 
brother he took a contract for putting down a 
test well, but failing to get oil, they disposed 
of their contract to other parties, paid up all 
indebtedness and left the oil country. He 
then became clerk in a store in Lockport at a 
salary of $100 for the first year, but his faith- 



fulness being appreciated, he was constantly 
advanced in salary and position. In 1870 he 
came to Michigan and became a salesman in a 
hardware store at Big Kapids, remaining there 
two years. He then worked for his brother at 
the lumber business in Montcalm county. In 
1872 he secured a half interest in a mill at 
Maple Valley, in partnership with L. H. Col- 
well, Mr. Morris putting in no capital, except 
his knowledge of the business, of which he had 
entire charge. At the end of eighteen months 
he closed out the deal with $11,000 to the 
good for himself. The next eight years he 
carried on a prosperous dry goods trade at 
Greenville, when he sold out and built a saw- 
mill at Belvidere, near Lakeview, and was 
heavily interested in timber lands and lumber. 
A disastrous decline in the price of lumber 
compelled him to close out everything at a 
sacrifice, leaving him some $2,300. With this 
capital and his former good standing with the 
wholesale trade, he was able to procure a 'full 
stock, and again opened up in the dry goods 
trade at Big Kapids, doing business alone 
until 1893, Avhen A. A. Crane became a part- 
ner. Mr. Morris has ever had the interest of 
Big Kapids at heart from his first locating 
there and has become prominent in many 
lines outside of dry goods. He is president of 
The Citizens' Bank, which he helped to organ- 
ize in 1897, being the only bank in the city. Ho 
is also president of The Parlor Furnace Co. 
(manufacturers of heating stoves and fur- 
naces), president and principal stockholder in 
The Crapo Toll Koad Co., director and treas- 
urer in The Big Kapids Permanent Building & 
Loan xVssociation, director and treasurer in 
The Big Kapids Board of Trade, and a direc- 
tor in The Crescent Furniture Co. He has 
always been a Kepublican and is a member of 
the Republican State Central Committee. He 
has been tendered nominations hj his party at 
different times but has always declined, his 
only official position being as a member of the 
school board, which he has held for the past 
five years. He has the higher Masonic de- 
grees (Knights Templar and Mystic Shrine), 
and is a member of the Knights of Pythias. 
He was married in 1875 at Greenville to Miss 
Minnie A . Crane, daughter of Kuf us C. Crane, 
of (xreenville, now at Big Kapids. Of their 
three children, Lucille is a graduate of the 
State University and a teacher in the public 
schools at Escanaba. Wilifred is a graduate 
of the Big Kapids High School, and Frank C. 
(16 years old) is still at home. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



MICHELSON, NELS. This name is un- 
mistakably Norse, and comes direct from Den- 
mark, Mr. Michelson having been bom in that 
country November 25, 1840. He attended the 
government schools until fifteen years of age, 
when he was bound out to a farmer, under 
whom he served three years, receiving for the 
first year $5 and the second year $10 for his 
services, besides his board. He worked as a 
farm hand imtil 1864, when he entered the 
Danish army in the war between Denmark and 
Prussia, and was taken prisoner at the battle 
of Debbel, March 17, 1864. The Prussians 
put the prisoners to work, first making powder 
bags, but they made such long stitches that the 
bags would not hold powder, and not liking 
that style of work, the Prussians set them to 
wheeling sand for the fortifications. When the 
war closed he returned home and worked as a 
farm hand until 1866, when he came to Amer- 
ica. Cholera broke out on shipboard and the 
vessel was held two months in quarantine at 
New York, over 200 of the passengers dying of 
the disease. The detention left him penniless 
and he went direct to his brothers at Racine, 
Wis. Remaining there only a short time, he 
went to Manistee, Mich., and went to work in 
a lumber camp at $1 per day. He worked here 
two years as swamper, driving team, etc. He 
then bought a team and took contracts, hauling 
supplies to lumber camps. In 1869 he joined 
with R. Hanson, they having together some 
$1,500, buying an outfit and taking a contract 
for getting out logs. Hard luck of various 
sorts, culminating with the failure of a bank at 
Manistee with $1,000 of their money, left 
them stranded at the end of two years. They 
started again on credit, with better success, and 
after a year began buying small tracts of pine 
land, the timber on which they cut and sold, in- 
creasing their operations each year, and after a 
time joining with E. N. Sailing, of Manistee, 
Mich., the co-partnership of Sailing, Hanson 
& Co., of Grayling, Mich., was formed. In 
1889 the Michelson & Hanson Lumber Com- 
pany was organized with Mr. Michelson as 
President, and in 1892 a large mill was erected 
at Lewiston, Mich. The two concerns, the 
Michelson & Hanson Lumber Company and 




NELS MICHELSON. 

Sailing, Hanson & Co. own over 50,000 acres 
of standing timber in Northern Michigan, and 
have cut some 60,000 acres. In 1895 Mr. 
Michelson purchased some 7,000 acres of land 
in Roscommon county, near Houghton Lake, 
which he is making into a stock farm, haying 
at present nearly 600 head of cattle, to which 
he has recently added 200 sheep as the nucleus 
of a sheep herd. He is president of the Craw- 
ford County Exchange Bank of Grayling, has 
beet sugar interests at Bay City and is a direc- 
tor in the J. A. Jamieson Lumber Company 
of St. Ignace, Mich. Mr. Michelson's society 
connections are Masonic, including the higher 
degrees, is a member of the ISTational and State 
Lumbermen's Associations, and of the Michi- 
gan (Republican) Club. He was married at 
Racine, Wis., in the year 1870 to Miss Mar- 
grethe Jenson, daughter of Lars Jenson. Their 
children are : Bessie, wife of E. E. Hartwieki 
lumber dealer at Mason, Mich. ; Frank L,, mth 
Sailing, Hanson & Co., of Grayling; Axel, a 
student at the Michigan Mining School ol 
Houghton ; Olaf N., assistt^nt cashier Otttwford 
County Exchange Bank, Grayling, and J^ed- 
erick, at home. Mr, Micfiielson's present mA- 
dence is at Grayling. 



MEN OF PBOGKESS. 




EDWABD H. GREEN. 

GREEN, EDAYARD H. Mr. Green 
earned the title of Major by service in the 
Civil War. He is a native of Lancaster 
county, Pa., born Oct. 31, 1834. His father, 
Joseph Green, was a native of Rhode Island 
and of Puritan stock. His mother, Susan 
Sloat, was born and passed her life in Lan- 
caster county. The son's education was 
rounded out at the State Normal School at 
Millersville, Pa., upon leaving which he be- 
came a teacher, in which profession he was 
engaged when the Civil War burst upon the 
country in 1861. He enlisted in the first 
three months' call, re-enlisted for three years, 
and subsequently again enlisted for service 
during the war, his regiments being the Tenth 
and One Hundred and Seventh Pennsylvania, 
attached to the Eif th Army Corps, when Gen- 
eral Grant took personal command of the 
Army of the Potomac. He was wounded at 
the Battle of Bull Run, Aug. 30, 1862, and 
after lying six days on the field, was picked up 
with others and conveyed to Lincoln Hospital^ 
Washington, where he was Confined four 
months. Upon rejoining his regiment he was 
promoted (Jan. 21, 1863,) from sergeant to 
second lieutenant, and seven days later to first 
lieutenant, and November 23rd, 1863, was 



commi^ioned a captain. At the battle of 
Spottsylvania, May 21, 1864, he was made 
prisoner and was held as such for nine months, 
successively in Libby Prison at Richmond, at 
Macon and Savannah, Georgia, and Charles- 
ton, S. C, and other points, and was paroled 
near Wilmington, N. C, Eeb. 24, 1865. He 
was made a major by brevet March 13, for 
meritorious services during the war and was 
mustered out of the service at its close, July 
13, 1865. 

In 1866 Maj. Green entered the law depart- 
ment of the University at Ann Arbor and 
graduated therefrom with the class of 1868. 
His ideal star had beckoned him to the west, 
but his practical monitor led him to northern 
Michigan, where, under the advice of Judge 
Ramsdell of Traverse City, he cast his lot in 
Charlevoix, where he has since resided. He 
filled the offices of Prosecutiiig Attorney and 
Circuit Court Commissioner of Charlevoix on 
its organization in 1869 (the former until 
1873), was twice elected to the Legislature 
(1872 and 1874), and served two terms as 
County Treasurer. He is in politics a Repub- 
lican, is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
including the Knights Templar, and an Epis- 
copalian in his religious connection. He is a 
member of the G. A. R. and of the military 
order of the Loyal Legion, and his war mem- 
ories are dear to him. He has been com- 
mander of the Grand Traverse Soldiers' and 
Sailors' Association. Wheii he located at 
Charlevoix he had $50, of which he paid $25 
toward the purchase of two town lots, on which 
he subsequently built an office and home. His 
first week was cheered by a client and a re- 
tainer of $20. He was the first editor of the 
Charlevoix Sentinel. The "Charlevoix Sum- 
mer Home'' at Charlevoix, which calls to that 
place five to six thousand people each summer, 
owes its establishment and growth largely to 
Maj. Green's efforts. 

Maj. Green has been twice married. Miss 
Luena A. Mathews of Ann Arbor, to whom he 
was married in 1868, and who died in 1886, 
bore him five children, Fred M., Margaret, 
Irma, Edna and Guy. The two first named 
are engaged in professional work, the first as 
a mechanical engineer and the second as a 
teacher in vocal and instrumental music. The 
others are pursuing professional studies. In 
1888 Mrs. Genevra (Barnes) Guyles, of Mani- 
towoc, Wis., became Mrs. Green. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



:lli 



SAVIDGE, WILLIAM. Mr. Savidge is a 
resident of Spring Lake, Ottawa county, at 
which place he was born Sept. 30, 1863. His 
father, Hunter Savidge, was a native of Penn- 
sylvania, his parents having come from New 
Jersey, and being of English extraction. Hun- 
ter Savidge was the fifth of thirteen children. 
After some business experiences in Illinois he 
came to Spring Lake (then known as Mill 
Point) in the spring of 1856, to buy lumber, 
and there organized the firm of Young, 
vSaAddge & Montague, the firm engaging in 
lumber manufacture. Its failure left Mr. 
Savidge to take care of its indebtedness from 
his personal means, which he did. In 1858 he 
became associated with Dwight Cutler in the 
lumber business, resulting in the incorpora- 
tion in 1874 of the Cutler & Savidge Lumber 
Company, capitalized at $500,000. Of this 
company Mr. Savidge was president until his 
death in 1881. During his lifetime Mr. 
Savidge was the moving spirit in his locality. 
He was one of the organizers of the Ottawa 
County Boom Company and a director in the 
Grand Eiver Boom Company and in the 
Grand Haven lN]"ational Bank. He built the 
Spring Lake House, and was active in the 
municipal and social affairs of the place. The 
wife of Mr. Savidge was formerly Miss Sarah 
C. Patten, of Grand Eapids, to whom he was 
married in 1857, and who is still living. Aside 
from the son William, Mr. and Mrs. Savidge 
were the parents of George P. and a daughter, 
Esther, now the wife of N, Bobbins, Jr., of 
Grand Haven. Mr. Savidge built a fine resi- 
dence at Spring Lake in 1871, and there his 
widow and children now reside. 

William Savidge succeeded to his father's 
place in the Cutler-Savidge Lumber Com- 
pany, becoming its vice-president. He gra- 
duated from the literary department of the 
University in the class of 1884 and subse- 
quently spent one year in the law department 




WILLIAM SAVIDGE. 

at Harvard. His history up to the present 
time connects itself mainly with the large 
business interests with which he is associated. 
The firm of Cutler & Savidge, of which Mr. 
S. is a member, have a large lumber mill at 
Cutler, Ontario, which turns out 150,000 feet 
of lumber per day, and own timber rights cov- 
ering 72,000 acres in the province. Mr. 
Savidge is a director in the Grand Haven Na- 
tional Bank and the Challenge Corn Planter 
Co., of Grand Haven, and the Grand Eapids 
Fire Insurance Company. He was elected a 
member of the State Senate on the Eepubli- 
can ticket in 1896, serving during the session 
of 1897 and 1898. From 1894 to 1896 he 
served on the Eepublican State Central Com- 
mittee as member from the Fifth Congres- 
sional District. He was president of the 
Alumni Association of the University in 1892. 
He is a member of the order of Elks, of the 
Michigan (Eepublican) Club, of the Ohi<»go 
Yacht Club and of the Alpha Delta Phi (lit-- 
erary) and is not married. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




ERNEST NELSON SALLING. 

SALLINO, ERNEST NELSON. Mr. 
Sailing is a native of Denmark, having been 
bom in Viborg, March 15, 1843. His father, 
Christian A. Sailing, for many years was a con- 
tractor at Viborg. His mother. Else 0. Dyer- 
berg, died in 1880 at the age of seventy-four 
years. There were nine children in the fam- 
ily, of Avhom three were boys, Ernest being 
the youngest. Until his thirteenth yeiar he 
attended the common schools of his native 
place, when he became? a clerk in his brother's 
store, where he remained until 1862. In 
May, 1862, Mr. Sailing, bent on seeking his 
fortune in the New World, left his home and 
sailed for America. After a short stay in 
New York he came west and found employ- 
ment in a dry goods store in Chicago, as clerk. 
He then went to Detroit and shortly after- 
ward made his way to Manistee, arriving there 
April 3, 1863. His first employment was in 
the mill of Michael Engelmann, in whose store 
the following September he went to work as 
clerk. In the spring of 1864 he was promoted 
to theposition of outside foreman at the Engel- 
mann mill, in which capacity he served two 
years. Until 1868 he continued in the em- 
ploy of Mr. Engelmann^ in the winter months 



as superintendent of the lumber camps and in 
the summer as outside foreman at the mill. 
From 1868 till 1871 he had charge of the En- 
gelmann vessel property, which included five 
steamers carrying passengers and freight. 

In 1867 Mr. Sailing became a partner with 
Mr. R. Hansen under the firm name of R. 
Hansen & Co., in the buying and selling of 
pine lands, which was continued until 1878. 
In 1871 in conjunction with Mr. Engelmann, 
he purchased the Waterman & Wing saw 
mill, in Maxwelltown, Avhich they operated 
under the firm name of Engelmann & Sailing. 
A year later Mr. S. Babcock purchased an 
interest and the firm name was changed to 
Engelmann, Babcock & Sailing. In 1879 
Mr. Saflling disposed of his business interests 
and returned to Denmark, where he spent a 
year visiting his old home, and in traveling on 
the continent. On his return to Manistee he 
became a partner in the firm of Sailing, Han- 
sen & Co., organized for carrying on a gen- 
eral lumbering and logging business. The in- 
terests of this firm include valuable holdings 
in pine lands in Crawford, Kalkaska, Mont- 
morency and Presque Isle countries. Mr. 
Sailing's individual interests in timber lands 
extend from Manistee county to Lake and 
Mason counties in the Upper Peninsula, and 
, to the State of Washington. He is owner of 
valuable real estate in Manistee, including a 
number of business blocks, one of which bears 
his name. 

Mr. Sailing is a member of the Congrega- 
tional Church of Manistee and in politics is a 
Republican, but never held any office. He is 
a thirty-second degree Mason, having taken 
the Knights Templar, Scottish Rite and Mys- 
tic Shrine degrees. On October 25, 1867, he 
was united in marriage to Miss Marion L. 
Johnston, of Mackinac Island, who died Au- 
gust 26, 1882, leaving a family of five chil- 
dren, one son and four daughters. The daugh- 
ters are all married, and the wives of prosper- 
ous business nien. On April 2, 1884, he was 
married to Miss Lotta A. Wheeler, daughter 
of the late Abram Wheeler, of Joliet, 111. 
One of the pioneers of N^orthern Michigan, 
when Manistee was scarcely more than a 
rough lumber camp, and with no equipment 
save that of rugged determination and wil- 
lingness to work, Mr. Sailing has risen to a 
place among the prominent and wealthy lum 
bermen of the State. 



HISTOBIOAL SKETCHES. 



*ir 



LAKKE, HON. FKEDEKIC DENNY. 

While the people of Michigan are considering 
the matter of a bi-centennary memorial com- 
memorative of the establishment of the first 
civil government under Cadillac> a brief 
record of some of those who have led the way 
in developing some of the lesser civil divisions 
of the state seems appropriate. In this rank 
Mr. Larke deserves to be placed as the founder 
and organizer of the county of Presque Isle. 
Mr. Larke was born in Warwickshire, Eng- 
land, September 7, 1845. His father, Eichard 
Denny Larke, graduated from and was at- 
tached to Guys Hospital in London, and is still 
practicing as consulting physician. It was his 
desire that the son should follow the same pro- 
fession, and his education was mapped out by 
a regular course of hospital practice and study 
with that end in view, but the medical profes- 
sion did not appeal to him as his ambition was 
to secure a commission in the British army. 
In this he failed and in 1865 he left home and 
came to Quebec. A year after his arrival 
in the new Avorld he joined a party of trad- 
ers at St. Paul, and in company with them 
penetrated the wild territory west of Hud- 
son's Bay. Here he remained for nearly a 
year, trading with the friendly disposed In- 
dians and securing a large stock of valuable 
furs, but some of the more northerly Indians, 
in the interest of other fur trading parties, be- 
came unfriendly and his party was forced 
southward. Selling out his interest in the ven- 
ture, Mr. Larke went to Detroit and engaged 
with a government party in the lake coast 
survey. 

The next year presented the opportunity of 
his life, through which he has made his im- 
press upon northern Michigan. He was en- 
gaged to locate land for the Molitor-Kogers 
Company in Presque Isle county, and it was 
while in their employ that he selected the site 
and laid out the village of Kogers City. 

He returned to Detroit (winter 1868-9), 
and prepared for the settlement of this new 
territory. Early in the spring he piloted a 
large party of German and Polish emigrants 
north into Presque Isle county. Here he 
worked with them to locate a town, cutting 
down the first tree upon the spot selected for 
the site of Kogers City, and cutting holes in the 
ice in order to get soundings and build a dock 
for vessels. 

In 18Y6 he established the first newspaper 
in Presque Isle County, the Presque Isle 
County Advance, in which he still owns one- 
half interest. 




HON. FRBDE-RIOK DENNY liABtgJB. 

Mr. Larke's services have been recognized 
by the people of Presque Isle county, and he 
has held almost every office in the ^t of the 
people. He was county clerk for 14 years, 
and supervisor eight years. He is a Kepubli- 
can and has been chairman of the county 
committee since it first sent delegates to the 
State convention. He is a Roman Catholic in 
religion. His present business is dealing in 
hardwood lumber, cedar and hemlock bark, 
and real estate, in connection with which he 
has also a drug and general store. Mr. Larke 
built the telephone line between Alpena and 
Eogers City, which was purchased by the 
Michigan-Bell Company in 1893. He is the 
postmaster at Rogers City. In 1875 Mr. 
Larke married Miss Augusta Streich at Rogers 
City. They have eight children, six sons, 
Frederick, on the force of the Presque Isle 
Advance, Basil, Roland, Laurence, Cyril and. 
Marmaduke, and two daughters, Blanche (now 
Mrs. John Jay Burns) and Isabel. 

Mr. Larke is directly descended from Sir 
Anthony Denny, Earl of Norwich, whom 
Shakespeare makes one of his dramatis per- 
sense in his play of King Henry VIII., and 
who history records as being the only on^ of 
the courtiers of that uxorious and irascible ty- 
rant who dared inform him of his approachiHig 
fate. Mr. Larke has today some valxiable h^ 
looms, being presents given by King Heiiry to 
the ancestor above named* 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




UBALD R. LORANGER. 

LORANGER, UBALD R. The subject of 
this sketch sprang from one of the oldest 
Erench families of Canada, who came from 
Erance in 1640, settling at the now town of 
Three Rivers, near Montreal. His father, 
Joshua E. Loranger, was a business man at 
L'Avenir, a small town in the province of 
Quebec, where the son was born May 11th, 
1863. His mother's maiden name was Her- 
mine Daigle. The parents moved to Muske- 
gon, Mich., in 1866, the father engaging in 
the mercantile business, and subsequently in 
lumbering. He went down with the panic of 
1873, and in 1875 the family moved to Bay 
City, the son having some school advantages 
both at Muskegon and at Bay City. lii 1876 
he engaged as cash boy in the dry goods store 
of Cook & Co., at $2.50 per week, in the 
morning peddlii^ the Detroit Evening News 
in West Bay City, finally becoming agent for 
the paper at that place, improving his even- 
ings by attending night school. He remained 
with Cook & Co. five years, having been pro- 



moted to the position of clerk.' The family 
having in the meantime returned to Canada, 
the father later held a position in the internal 
-revenue service at Montreal. In 1881 the son 
joined his parents at Montreal, where he spent 
six years in studying Erench, the classics, and 
in preparing for the University. He returned 
to Michigan in the fall of 1885, and entered 
the law department of the University, taking 
at the same time the course in political science, 
graduating with the class of 1887. In June, 
1887, he located at Bay City, and in July of 
that year formed a co-partnership with Hon. 
Archibald McDonell, Avhich continued for 
two years, the receipts from the practice af- 
fording a comfortable living, with a small 
balance to the good. Since October, 1889, he 
has practiced alone. 

Mr. Loranger has always been a Republi- 
can, making his early debut in politics during 
the Blaine campaign of 1884, when he 
stumped Bay county in behalf of the party. 
In 1893 he was appointed city attorney of 
Bay City, serving in that position two terms ; 
and in 1897 he served temporarily as assistant 
prosecuting attorney of Bay county. He has 
been active in partisan work — was three years 
chairman of the Republican City Committee, 
was a delegate to several Republican State 
Conventions and in 1896 chairman of the Bay 
County delegation. He was a Pingree hustler 
at that gathering, and represented the 10th 
district on the committee to whom the matter 
of the contesting delegations from St. Clair 
county was referred. 

He has been twice married, first in 1889 to 
Miss Bettie A. Dayton, of Lansing, who died 
May 17, 1891, leaving an infant daughter, 
Bettie D. In October, 1895, Miss Marie 
Erank, daughter of Ernst Erank, of Bay City, 
became Mrs. Loranger. They have two chil- 
dren, Hubert R. and Marie N. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



Ml 



OSBORN, JAMES WHITCHILL. James 
W. Osborn, now an attorney of Kalamazoo, 
was born in Sherinan, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., 
Feb. 10, 1843. His father was a tanner at that 
place, under whom the son learned the trade 
most thoroughly, at the same time attending 
the local schools. When eighteen years of age 
he went to Franklin, Pa., and took up the 
study of law and was admitted to the bar in 
April, 1864, and at once entered into partner- 
ship with Hon. S. P. McCalmont, of that place, 
with whom he remained for twenty years. In 
December, 1884, the health of Mrs. Osbom, 
to whom he was married in May, 1874, was 
such that they concluded to come west, which 
they did, locating at Kalamazoo. Mr. Osborn 
began practice there, and in 1887 became 
senior in the present firm of Osborn & Mills. 
Mr. Osborn is a Kepublican in politics, but has 
done very little active partisan work other 
than to give the party his hearty support. His 
official service is limited to two terms as Mayor 
of Kalamazoo, 1894-5. He is a 33rd degree 
Mason, a Knights Templar and a member of 
the Consistory and of the Mystic Shrine. He is 
largely identified with the material interests of 
Kalamazoo, having extensive real estate, bank- 
ing and other manufacturing interests, being 
vice-president of the First National Bank and 
a director of the C. H. Dutton Company and 
the Upjohn Pill & Granule Company of Kala- 
mazoo, and is president of the Charlevoix Sum- 
mer House Association of Charlevoix. Mr. 
and Mrs. Osborn have one daughter and one 
son. Edith M. is at home and Donald C. a law 
student at Ann Arbor. The father of Mrs. 
Osborn, Caleb Cornell, formerly of Plattsburg, 
]SI. Y., died in Clinton, K Y., in 1850. 

The family of Mr. Osborn has contributed 
its portion toward the dramatic and martial 
history of the country. His great grandfather, 
with his family, together with two other fami- 
lies (Harris and Piatt) lived on Long Island in 
the time of the Kevolutionary War, when the 
British took possession. They were given 
twenty-four hours in which to take the oath of 
allegiance to King George, or to leave the 
island. They left, going together to Glen 




JAMES WrrCHILL OSBORN. 

Falls, N. Y., where they built a block house 
which they occupied. The elder male mem- 
bers of the three families then joined the Con- 
tinental Army, leaving their new home in 
charge of two of the younger men. After 
peace was declared, Mr. Osborn's grandfather, 
David Osborn, married one of the Harris girls, 
and in course of time his father married a 
daughter of the Platts, so that the blood of the 
three exiled Long Island families is united in 
the subject of the present sketch. Mr. Osborn^s 
father, Piatt Smith Osbom, was a soldier in 
the war of 1812, and at its close settled in 
Chautauqua county, N". Y. His mother, Mary 
Ann Piatt, was a daughter of Nehemiah 
Piatt, of Erie county, Pa., and died at Sher- 
man, N. Y., in 1845, where his father also died 
April 30, 1881. Mr. Osbom had three broth- 
ers in the Civil War. David 0. (Rev.) was in 
the hospital corps, Piatt S. was a private in 
the New York State troops, and Harris B. fii^t 
enlisted as a private in the volunteer service, 
but having previously studied medicine^ 
passed an examination, was promoted to as- 
sistant surgeon, and after the fall of Vicka- 
burg was made post surgeon of the hospital 
there. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




DR. JOSEPH MARSHALL. 

MARSHALL, DR. JOSEPH. Dr. Mar- 
shall, now of Durand, is beyond doubt one of 
the naost thoroughly equipped practitioners in 
Michigan. His. first scientific training was re- 
ceived in the office of Dr. F. M. Garlick at Ar- 
mada, Macomb county, with whom he studied 
one year. He then took a four years' course in 
the Detroit Medical College, graduating there- 
from in 1878. He then went to Gaines, Mich., 
and established a practice there which he pur- 
sued successfully until 1892, when he turned 
his practice over to a successor and went to Chi- 
cago, where he took two post-graduate courses 
in the hospital there. He then established a 
practice at DuTand, which he followed stead- 
ily for five years, when he went to New York 
and took a full post-graduate course in the 
New York Post-graduate Medical School, 
when he resumed his practice at Durand, 
which he has continued successfully up to the 
present time. 

Somewhat after the method of the play of 
Troilus and Cressida, this sketch of Dr. Mar- 
shall skips his earlier career, "beginning in the 



middle," as the prologue has it, and that must 
be amended. He was born in the township of 
Warwick, Ontario, June 22, 1848, his parents 
removing to Port Huron, Mich., when he was 
quite young. Farm work and the district 
school occupied his time until 1864, when like 
many another Michigan boy, he went to the 
front to fight the battles of the Union, having 
enlisted as a private in the Thirtieth Michigan 
Infantry. At the close of the war in 1865 he 
returned to Armada and took the advanced 
course in the High School there, after which 
he entered upon the study of medicine as 
stated foregoing. 

Dr. Marshall is of mixed Irish and Scotph 
blood, but more Irish than Scotch. His father, 
Thomas G. Marshall, was a native of Ireland, 
and died in 1898 near Mattawa, Ontario. His 
mother, Isabella Carr, was a native of Scot- 
land, her father, however, having been Irish. 
She died in Port Huron in 1855. Mrs. Mar- 
shall, to whom Dr. M. was married June 14, 
1879, was formerly Miss Hester Ogden, 
daughter of Pendleton Ogden, of Armada, 
who came with his parents from London, Eng- 
land, in 1819 and first settled in the State of 
New York. He died in Saginaw in August, 
1864. The mother of Mrs. Marshall died in 
Armada in 1891. Dr. and Mrs. Marshall have 
one daughter, Nellie H., aged nineteen, and 
living at home. Mrs. Marshall is a cousin to 
Ann Eliza Young, formerly one of the 
^ ^sealed'' wives of Brigham Young, and who 
for some years was known as a lecturer 
throughout the United States against Mormon- 
ism. Mrs. Young was a daughter of the late 
Chauncey Webb, formerly of the State of 
Illinois. She was married a short time since 
to A. L. Dunning, of Manistee, Mich. 

Dr. Marshall is a member of the Masonic 
Fraternity, including the Knights Templar 
and the Mystic Shrine, and also of the Elks. 
He was Surgeon-General of the Union Veter- 
ans' Union, Department of Michigan, 1893. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



417 



ROOS, ELBERT S. The name of Mr. Roos 
implies a Holland descent^ which is traced to 
an ancestral family, settling near what is now 
New York City, about the year 1600. Mr. 
Roos' father was a farmer at New Hurley, N. 
Y., where the son was born October 26, 1850. 
Leaving the primary schools at the age of 
seventeen he took a preparatory course at Fort 
Edward, N. Y., paying his expenses with 
money earned by work as a farm hand. He 
then entered Union College at Schenectady, 
his only resources being such as he was enabled 
to earn by teaching and working nights and 
Saturdays at whatever presented itself, keep- 
ing his expenses down to the minimum by 
clubbing with other students. His circum- 
stances compelled him to leave college at the 
end of his junior year, but with a considerable 
degree of progress in the Latin and scientific 
courses. After leaving college he resumed 
teaching, but in the summer of 1873 he de- 
cided to go west, and landed in Kalamazoo 
with $40 in his pocket. He very soon secured 
a position in the office of Arthur Brown, then a 
prominent lawyer of Kalamazoo, and later U. 
S. Senator from Utah, at $2 per week for ser- 
vices, with the privilege of reading law. The 
second year he was salaried at $1,500, and the 
third year at $2,000. He was admitted to the 
bar ]^oveniber 12, 1875, before Judge Josiah 
E. Hawes, at Kalamazoo, and on April 1st, 
1878, became junior in the law firm of Brown, 
Howard & Roos. Mr. Brown withdrew from 
the firm on his removal to Utah, in 1879, when 
the firm became Howard & Roos, which con- 
tinued until January 1st, 1898, when by an 
admission of the son of the senior partner, it 
became Howard, Roos & Howard. Mr. Roos 
has made a specialty of corporation law and 
has an extensive practice throughout the 
United States in that department. 

Mr. Roos has extended business connections 
aside from his law practice. He is a director 
in the Kalamazoo ]!^ational Bank, a director, 
secretary and treasurer of the Dunklee Celery 
& Preserving Company of Kalamazoo and 
South Haven, secretary and treasurer of the 
Kalamazoo Ice Company, a director and vice- 




ELBERT S. ROOS. 

president of the Kalamazoo Corset Company, 
secretary and treasurer of the Kalamazoo Rail- 
way Supply Company, director in the Hender- 
son-Ames Company, the Kalamazoo Box Com- 
pany and a large stockholder in the Kalama- 
zoo Sugar Beet Company, attorney for and 
stockholder in the Bardeen Paper Company 
of Otsego, director in the South Side Improve- 
ment Company of Kalamazoo, and general 
counsel for the Round Oak Stove Works of 
Dowagiac. He organized the Kalamazoo Cor- 
set Company (mentioned foregoing) in 1894, 
first with a capital of $75,000, which has since 
been increased to $100,000. The plant was 
formerly located at Three Oaks and was re- 
moved to Kalamazoo in 1894, and today gives 
employment to 450 people. Mr. Rqos^ is a 
member of the Elks, the Knights of Pythias, 
and the Psi Upsilon (Literary), and also of the 
Michigan Club, whiph defines his politics as 
Republican. Although he never smelt powder 
in actual warfare, he became a member of 
Company C, Second Regiment, Michigan Na- 
tional Guard, of Kalamazoo, and was commis- 
sioned a second lieutenant in 1882 and adju- 
tant of the regiment in 1883. He was never 
married. 



418 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




WALTER I. LILLIE. 



LILLIE, WALTEK I. Mr. LiUie's father, 
Joel B. Lillie, was a farmer in Talmade Town- 
ship, Ottawa county, where Mr. Lillie was 
born October 9, 1856. His mother, Sarah C. 
Angiir, was a sister of the late Gen. 0. C. 
Angnr, of Worthington, D. T. His early his- 
tory Avas that of most Michigan farm boys — 
attending the local school, and when old 
enough to work enjoying school advantages 
only during the winter months. His father 
had contracts for getting out timber and logs 
for the Grand Haven and Muskegon sawmills, 
and when old enough to drive a team the son 
assisted him in this work. When he was 
twenty-one years of age his father offered 
him forty acres of land if he would stay at 
home and work the farm, but he had made up 
his mind to aspire to something higher, some- 
thing at least in which there was less of man- 
ual drudgery. A more advanced education 
being a necessity he entered the Agricultural 
College at Lansing, from which he graduated 
in 1881. Upon leaving college, Mr. Lillie be- 
gan teaching a district school near Grand 



Haven, and at the same time took up the study 
of law. He was admitted to the bar before 
Judge Daniel J. Arnold, at Grand Haven, in 
1884, and entered upon the practice of the 
profession there, which he has since pursued 
with a degree of success of which he has no 
cause to complain. A Kepublican in politics, 
Mr. Lillie springs from Democratic stock, his 
father and other relatives having been prom- 
inent in local Democratic circles. He was 
elected Circuit Court Commissioner of Ot- 
tawa county in 1884, and in 1886 was elected 
Prosecuting Attorney, and again in 1888. He 
has served several terms as city attorney of 
Grand Haven, and was again appointed to 
that place in May, 1900. He is interested as 
a stockholder in and officer of the Bliss Furni- 
ture Company of Grand Haven. His society 
connections are United Workmen and Macca- 
bees. He was married in 1886 to Miss Ella 
H. McQrath, daughter of Michael McGrath, 
of Dennison, Ottawa county. They have four 
children, Harold I., Leo C, W. Ivan and 
Hugh E., all at home. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



fl9 



PALMEE, AMBEOSE E. Whether the 
idea holds in all cases that educated men make 
the best farmers, it is well supported in the 
case of Mr. Palmer. He was born at Pleas- 
antville, Westchester county, N. Y., August 
5, 1849, and had the local school advantages 
up to the age of 14. He then attended Will- 
braham Academy, at Willbraham, Mass., re- 
maining there nearly three years in prepara- 
tion for college. He graduated from Wes- 
leyan College, at Middletown, Conn., in 1869, 
and subsequently took a special chemical 
course there, but on account of poor health he 
could not follow that profession. He taught 
school during his college course, to pay his 
way, except the last term, when he borrowed 
money enough to carry him through. Find- 
ing no opening in the east for a young man 
of his qualifications, he acted upon Horace 
Greeley's advice and came west. He first 
went to Milwaukee, where he remained a few 
months and then came to Michigan. His 
first job was acting as foreman of a gang of 
hands engaged in building a saw mill at Torch 
Lake, Antrim county. From this he entered 
the general store and lumber oflice of J. H. 
Silkman, of that place, and soon became man- 
ager of the mercantile department, continu- 
ing in this employ until the spring of 1876, 
when he removed to Kalkaska, which has 
since been his home, and started in the mer- 
cantile business on his own account. The 
place at that time had a population of only 90 
persons, all told, and Mr. Palmer was one of 
the first to plant a business house there. He 
conducted a prosperous business for ten years, 
when he withdrew from its active manage- 
ment, the business, however, being still con- 
tinued under the firm name of Palmer & 
Hobbs. Since 1886 Mr. Palmer has devoted 
himself to farming and is one of the most 
successful farmers in northern Michigan, 
having a dairy farm of 640 acres and a herd of 
60 Jersey cows. He is identified with the 
associate work of the farmers, having been a 
delegate from Michigan to the Farmers' I^a- 
tional Congress at Boston in 1899 and to the 
same body at its meeting at Denver in 1900. 




AMBROSE E. PALMER. 

Has been a member of the State Agricultural 
Society for years and for years a member of 
the executive committee of the Michigan 
State Grange and is a member also of the 
State Dairymen's Association. 

Mr. Palmer has been identified with the 
growth of Kalkaska from a hamlet of 90 per- 
sons to a village of 1,500, and has had per- 
sonal relations with nearly all the manuf ac-' 
turing interests of the place. He has also 
contributed to its social and civil life, having 
served as supervisor several times and being 
at present chairman of the Kalkaska county 
road commission and was for six years a mem- 
ber of the local school board. He is in poli^ 
tics a Kepublican and has been chairman of 
the county committee of that party for ten 
years a^nd was a delegate alternate to the Re- 
publican National Convention at Chicago in 
1892. He is a member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity and of Ivanhoe Commandery, Kjaights 
Templar, of Petoskey. His parents, Stephen 
and Sarah (Hobby) Palmer, were in direct 
descent from Harvey Palmer, first of Had- 
ham, Mass. Miss Hattie Knight, daughter 
of Richard Knight, of Atwood, Mich., became 
Mrs. Palmer in 1875. Their two older chil- 
dren, Wilbur and Jessie K., are students 
at the Agricultural College. The two 
yoimger, Everett and Eva, are attending local 
schools. 



^m:^ 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




EMORY TOWN6END. 

l^OWNSEND, EMORY. The father of 
the subject of the present sketch, Ransom 
ToAvnsend, has been a well known resident of 
Washtenaw county for 65 years. Born in 
Genesee county, N. Y., in 1828, he came with 
his parents to Michigan in 1835, they locating 
in the township of Superior. In 1848 he 
married Juliaette Leland, daughter of Hon. 
Joshua G. Leland, of the town of Northfield, 
same county. Mr. Leland enjoyed the dis- 
tinction of being the only Whig elected to the 
Legislature from Washtenaw county (then 
having six members elected on general ticket), 
in 1844. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend are still 
living in Superior, upon the same farm Avhere 
he first settled 65 years ago. 

Emory Townsend was born October 18th, 
1858. He passed from the local schools at 
home to the high school at Ann Arbor and 
thence to the University, taking courses in 
both literary and law departments, teaching 
to defray his expenses in the University. 
Completing his education at the University 
in 1883, he spent nearly two years in the west 
and south, mining a portion of said period. 

He located in Saginaw in 1885, began the 
practice of law and at once took front rank 
as a successful attorney and has won for him- 
self an enviable position, both as a lawyer, a 
citizen and a man of business. While he is 
engaged in a general practice, his more special 
lines are real estate, corporation and probate 
law. 



In 1894 he was elected to the State Senate 
on the Republican ticket from the Saginaw 
district, by a majority of 865, being the only 
Republican returned from that district in 12 
preceding years. Since the close of his terms 
all his successors have been Democrats, leav- 
ing Mr. Townsend the distinction of being the 
only Republican senator from Saginaw dis- 
trict in 18 years. He withdrew from politics 
at the close of his senatorial term, devoting 
himself to his law practice and such other 
lines of business as by natural selection came 
in the way of a successful attorney. He has 
frequently been solicited to stand as the can- 
didate of his party for official positions, in- 
cluding member of Congress, circuit judge 
and mayor of his city, but has uniformly de- 
clined all such nominations. 

Mr. Townsend has extensive lodge connec- 
tions, being a member of the Masonic frater- 
nity, the Maccabees, Foresters, Modern Wood- 
men of America, and other societies. He is 
past high priest of Saginaw Valley Chapter, 
'No. 31, Royal Arch Masons. He enjoys a 
marked popularity and distinction in the In- 
dependent Order of Foresters, having been 
high counselor and high Adce-chief ranger of 
Michigan; in 1895 he was elected a delegate 
and attended the International Supreme 
Court meeting of said order held in London, 
England, and while in attendance there took 
a prominent part in the deliberations of said 
meeting. He has been both local and state 
counsel of the order of the Modern Woodmen 
of America; and for the last three years he 
has been chairman of the national l)oard of 
auditors of that society. At the National 
Convention in Dubuque in 1897 there were 
three auditors to be chosen, and of the five 
candidates, Mr. Townsend received 203 votes 
out of a total of 231. At the National Con- 
vention in Kansas City in 1899 there were 
five auditors to be chosen, and of the ten can- 
didates, Mr. Townsend received 297 votes out 
of a total of 351. By reason of his fraternal 
affiliations and general affability, Mr. Towns- 
end enjoys a very extensive and desirable ac- 
quaintance throughout the United States, 
which has brought him much legal work ; an 
indefatigable worker, doing an almost incred- 
ible amount of work accurately and with dis- 
patch has contributed largely to place him in 
the very prominent legal and social position 
that he now occupies. 

Miss Anna L. Fairman, of Plymouth, be- 
came Mrs. Townsend October 20, 1885. Their 
children are: Katherine H., Juliaette L. and 
Kichard Emory, aged respectively nine, six 
and three vears. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



421 



SHARPE, HON. NELSON. Hon. Nel- 
son Sharpe, of West Branch, Ogemaw county, 
judge of the Thirty-fourth judicial circuit, 
although born in Canada, is of American an- 
cestry, his paternal ancestors having been for 
several generations residents of St. Lawrence 
county, N. Y. They were of Scotch and 
Irish extraction. His parents were Nelson 
and Eunice (McColl) Sharpe. The son was 
born on a farm in Northumberland county, 
Ontario, October 25, 1858. His early educa- 
tion was received in the district school, from 
which he was enabled to secure a second grade 
teacher's certificate at the age of 16. He 
secured a district school the same year and 
was a successful teacher for five years. His 
early inclination was toward the medical pro- 
fession, but by reason of his association with 
a young lawyer he decided to take up the 
study of law. In 1879 he took a preparatory 
course and the same fall entered Albert Col- 
lege, at Belleville, taking a literary course for 
two years. To be admitted to practice it was 
necessary for him to spend five years in a law 
office, or if a graduate, three years, and on 
the advice of friends he concluded to spend 
the entire time of preparation in an office, and 
entered that of Clute & Williams, of Belle- 
ville. He remained there a year and then 
went into the office of John W. Kerr, of Co- 
lon rg, as student and assistant, receiving for 
his service $25 per month the first year and 
$35 per month the second year. In 1885 he 
went to West Branch, where a brother had 
preceded him, and soon become impressed 
with the fact that Michigan offered better 
opportunities than those to be found every 
day in Canada. He went into the office of 
Markey & Hall, of West Branch, then the 
leading law firm in that part of the state, and 
three months later (May, 1885) was examined 
and admitted to practice before Judge J. B. 
Tuttle, at Tawas City. He opened an ofiice 
but became interested with his brother in a 
newspaper enterprise, the West Branch 
Times, and divided his attention between law 
and literature, interspersed with some practi- 
cal lessons in running a country newspaper. 




HON. NELSON SHARPE. 

involving the work of editor, reporter, adver- 
tising solicitor, pressman, etc., and at the end 
of three years, his law practice, by the side of 
other well known attorneys, having become 
remunerative, he withdrew from active news- 
paper work, though retaining his interest until 
1890. 

Mr. Sharpe was president of the village of 
West Branch in 1889, was president of the 
school board two years and chairman of the 
Republican county committee six years. He 
was elected prosecuting attorney in 1890 and 
re-elected in 1892, serving until he was ap- 
pointed judge of the newly formed Thirty- 
fourth judicial circuit, in 1893. He was 
elected to the seat at the November election 
in 1894 and re-elected without opposition for 
the full term at the spring election in 1899. 
Judge Sharpe is a Republican in politics, is a 
member of the Michigan Club, of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity, including the Knights Tem- 
plar, of the Oddfellows and Knights of 
Pythias. His wife, to whom he was mamed 
in 1884, was formerly Miss Francis Lean, 
daughter of Wm. Leanf^ of Grafton,, Ont. 
They have two sons, Leo N. and Donald B. 



m 



MEN OF PEOtoESS. 




GEN. GEORGE A. HABT. 

HAKT, GEOKGE A., GEK Gen. Hart, 
of Manistee, was born in Lapeer, Mich. His 
great-grandfather, Deacon Stephen Hart, was 
a native of Essex county, England, and located 
at Newton, Mass. Oliver B. Hart, grand- 
father of George A., removed to Lapeer in 
1837, and with him came his son Joseph B., 
the father of Gen. Hart. Gen. Hart received 
his early education in the public schools of 
Lapeer, but at the age of fourteen he left to 
enter the army, taking a place in the commis- 
sary and quartermaster's department of the 
Fifth Michigan Cavalry, commanded by Col. 
Alger. In the spring of 1863 he enlisted in 
the ranks and participated in all the battles 
of the Army of the Potomac, fifty-four in all. 
At the close of the war he went west with the 
Custer Cavalry Brigade and during two ye^rs 
was engaged in fifteen Indian skirmishes. In 
March, 1866, Mr. Hart received his discharge 
from the army at Salt Lake City, and imriie- 
diately went to work for Wells, Fargo & Co., 
with whom he remained until the fall of 1867, 
when he returned to Lapeer. Until 1870 he 
engaged in farming, then selling his farm to 
go to Fenton, where he engaged in the fur- 



nishing goods business. He - closed out at 
Fenton in 1872 with resources barely suffi- 
cient to meet liabilities, and accepted an 
offered position in the store of John Egan at 
Manistee at $50 per month, reaching there 
without a cent. In 1876 he started in the 
real estate business in a small way, mostly 
commission sales, and has built up an exten- 
sive business which at the present time com- 
prises land, timber, loans and abstracts of 
title. He is of the firm of Wallace & Hart, 
insurance, and Hart & Swigert, real estate ; is 
president and general manager of the Manis- 
tee, Filer City & Eastlake Electric Railway, a 
director in the First N'ational Bank and is an 
extensive owner of city and farm property. 
Upon the election of Gen. Alger to the office 
of governor, Mr. Hart Avas appointed to the 
position of quartermaster-general of the state 
troops, a position which he filled with credit 
to himself, and for the duties of which he 
manifested marked ability. He was a mem- 
ber of the board of trustees of the Traverse 
City Insane Asylum, 1892-96, but resigned 
on the election of Mr. Pingree as governor. 
Gen. Hart, while an ardent Eepublican in 
politics, has never sought public office, 
although his name has been mentioned in con- 
nection with nominations to offices of import- 
ance, including those of governor and secre- 
tary of state. Gen. Hart has been prominent 
in affairs connected with the G. A. K. and was 
a delegate to the national convention of 1888. 
He was aide on the staff of Gen. Alger when 
department commander of the Michigan G. 
A. K., and likewise on the staff of Col. A. T. 
Bliss. He has served two terms as president 
of the Soldiers and Sailors' Association of 
Northwestern Michigan, and during 1894-95 
served the city as mayor, being the only Ee- 
publican ever elected to that office up to that 
time. Gen. Hart has been twice majried, first 
in 1868, to Miss Ella J. Hammond, daughter 
of John K. Hammond, of Lapeer, who died 
in 1878, leaving one daughter, Amy A., now 
the wife of Geo. W. Swigert, of Manistee. 
His second marriage was in 1880, to Miss 
Mattie Dexter, daughter of Samuel Dexter, of 
Manistee. To this marriage have been l)orn 
Sabra, Pearl M., Grace F. and Golden A., all 
at home. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



423 



WAIT, FRANK WADS WORTH. Mr. 
Wait is a native, and ^^to the manner born/' 
having first seen the light at the village of 
Sturgis, December 22, 1858. His father, 
Jonathan Gr. Wait, was a man of marked per- 
sonality and came to Sturgis from Livingstone 
county, New York, where he was a furni- 
ture manufacturer and railroad contrac- 
tor. He built the first furniture manufactur- 
ing plant in Sturgis. He was also a journalist 
in later life, having published the Sturgis 
Journal for about a dozen years (1858-1870). 
He was a member of the legislature (repre- 
sentative) in 1851, before the Republican 
party was formed, and was senator three 
terms (1863-7), during the war and recon- 
struction days, and was a Republican of the 
Zach. Chandler type. He died in 1893. 
Mrs. Wait was, before her marriage, Susan 
S. Buck, daughter of George Buck, who built 
the first house in Sturgis, about the year 1828. 
She still lives in vigorous health, at the age 
of 78. 

Trank W. Wait went from the local schools 
of Sturgis to Hillsdale College , where he 
closed his educational career in 1876. He 
then spent nine years as a traveling salesman 
in the western states, for the output of his 
father's furniture manufactory, for which he 
built up a good trade. In 1885 he succeeded 
his father in the business, which had a success- 
ful run until burned out in 1888, with a total 
loss. He rebuilt and replaced the plant in 
1889 and continued the business until the fall 
of 1896, when he withdrew to devote his ener- 
gies to contracting and manufacturing hard- 
wood lumber, ties and timbers. He also owns 
and operates a general farm of some 700 acres 
near Sturgis, making the raising of pepper- 
mint, spearant and wormwood for their essen- 
tial oils a specialty. Also raising cattle, sheep 
and poultry of all kinds. He has always been 
a promoter of different manufacturing inter- 
ests in Sturgis. 

While Mr. Wait does not mix business with 
politics, he seems to have a sufficiency of mo- 
tive power to push both along, though on dif- 
ferent tracks, and they both go, when he is the 
propelling force. And politics, in this con- 
nection, means not alone party politics, but a 




FRANK WADS WORTH WAIT. 

general interest in and attention to public 
affairs. His Republicanism is no less pro- 
nounced than was that of his father, and he 
has attended every state convention of his 
party for the past twenty years. He was a 
delegate to the ISTational Republican Conven- 
tion at St. Louis in 1876, and a member of 
the committee on permanent organization. 
He has been a member of the Republican 
state central committee for twelve years, and 
is the ranking member in point of length of 
service and has been on the executive commit- 
tee of the State League of Republican Clubs 
since the organization, and has been treasurer 
for the past six years. He is also a member 
of the Michigan Club. In 1889 he was ap- 
pointed by the attorney-general of the United 
States a special attorney for the Court of 
Claims, which holds its sessions in Washing- 
ton. He was appointed by Gov. Rich a mem- 
ber of the board of guardians of the Industrial 
School for Girls, at Adrian, in 1895, resign- 
ing in 1897, not being able to give it suffi- 
cient time. Mr. Wait is no less a society man 
than a politician, his connections being Ma- 
sonic, Oddfellows, Maccabees, United Work- 
men and Knights of Pythias. Mrs. Wait, 
before her marriage January 13, 1883, M'as 
Miss Ellen M. Fishback, daughter of Rev. A. 
J. Fishback. Two daughters comprise tie 
family, Isabelle M. and Helen G/ Wait.' 



42i 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




LYMAN HAKES McCALL. 

McCALL, LYMAN HAKES. Mr. McCall 
is of Irish extraction, his father, Joseph G. Mc- 
Call, having been born in County Armagh, 
Ireland. The father came to America with 
his family when young, early in the 1840 de- 
cade, settling in the state of New York. He 
found in some portions of this state a condition 
of "landlordism'' similar to that which existed 
in Ireland. Under the Dutch sovereiffntv, 
titles to immense areas of the soi; had been ac- 
quired from the Indians by the Holland Com- 
pany and some of the favored ones became 
possessed of large tracts which they held in 
perpetuity. These lands were not sold to the 
settlers but were leased for long terms at a 
rental which, in many cases, was little more 
than nominal. The settlers, however, in 
course of time, began to chafe under the ar- 
rangement, feeling that they had paid in rent 
much more than the original value of the land. 
Hence arose what was called the "anti-rent 
war" in some of the counties. It assumed 
menacing proportions at one time and became 
an element in New York politics. It involved 



much of lawlessness and violence, as civil dis- 
turbances usually do, in which some barns 
were said to have been burned, from which the 
anti-renters and their partisans were character- 
ized by their opponents as "Barnburners,'' and 
this term was applied to those who represented 
the more popular or ultra democratical ele- 
ment in our politics, not alone in New York 
but elsewhere, especially in Michigan. The 
elder McCall through the association of ideas 
naturally enough sympathized with the anti- 
rent sentiment and was identified with it. The 
mother of our Mr. McCall, whose maiden 
name was Caroline Hakes, was a New York 
lady. Joseph G. McCall died June 25, 1900. 
The mother is still living. 

Lyman Hakes McCall was born in Delaware 
county, N. Y., August 31, 1860, where he 
lived with his parents until 1870, when the 
family moved to Petersburg, Va. The son 
attended the local schools in New York and 
subsequently at Petersburg. In 1878 he en- 
tered Olivet (Mich.) College, graduating there- 
from in 1880. Coming to Charlotte, his pres- 
ent residence, he studied law in the office of 
Edward A. Foote and was admitted to the bar 
before Judge F. A. Hooker in July, 1883: He 
became a partner with his former preceptor 
(Foote) which continued four years. He then 
became associated professionally with F. A. 
Dean, so continuing until 1890, since which 
time he has been alone in practice. 

In politics Mr. McCall has always been a 
staunch Republican. He was elected prose- 
cuting attorney of Eaton county in 3 892, 
serving one term, and has been city attorney 
of Charlotte several times. In 1898 he was 
elected a member of the Legislature and dur- 
ing the session of 1899 was chairman of the 
House committee on private corporations and 
a member of the important committees on rail- 
roads and insurance. Miss Jennie M. Fonts, 
daughter of Dr. Jesse T. Fonts, became Mrs. 
McCall in November, 1885. They have two 
children, Harry T. and Hattie, aged respect- 
ively thirteen and eleven years. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



425 



HAIS^NAH, HOIS^. PEEKY. The name 
of Mr. Hannah is synonymous with the Grand 
Traverse region and with Traverse City, 
where he resides. He was born in Erie 
county, Pennsylvania, Sept. 22, 1824, the 
second son of Elihu L. and Anna (McCann) 
Hannah, the father a native of Connecticut 
and the mother of Pennsylvania, both being 
remotely of Scotch descent. They were farm- 
ers, and on the death of the mother in 1827 
the father came to Port Huron, and after- 
wards removed to St. Clair, where he died in 
1862. The son remained in Pennsylvania 
until he was 13 years old, enjoying the school 
advantages there, when he joined his father 
in Michigan, assisting him in lumbering and 
rafting operations, in which he was engaged. 
From his eighteenth to his twenty-first year he 
was in the employ of John Wells, in the dry 
goods trade, at Port Huron. In 1846 he 
went to Chicago and was in the employ of 
lumber firms there for some four years, when 
through the aid of his then employer, Jacob 
Beidler, he became senior in the firm of Han- 
nah, Lay & Co., composed of himself, A. T. 
Lay and James Morgan, of which William 
Morgan, after a time, became a special part- 
ner. The firm of Hannah, Lay & Co. forms 
an inseparable part of northern Michigan. 
The firm built a mill and began manufactur- 
ing lumber in a small way at a point on Grand 
Traverse Bay that has since become Traverse 
City, in 1851. From their small beginnings, 
handling pine only, the capacity of the firm 
reached 20,000,000 feet annually, including 
both pine and hardwood, before the sale of 
the mills and timber lands to John Torrent, 
of Muskegon, in 1887. During the earlier 
years of their manufacturing, Mr. Hannah 
alternated with his partner, Mr. Lay, six 
months turn about, between Chicago and their 
mills, but in 1855 Mr. Hannah became per- 
manently a resident of Traverse City. 

The beautiful town of Traverse City, with 
its nearly 10,000 of population, may he said 
to be almost an outgrowth of the firm of Han- 
nah, Lay & Co. The firm have other ex- 
tended commercial interests, aside from the 
lumber manufacture, from which they have 
retired. They conduct a large mercantile 




HON. PERRY HANNAH. 

establishment, employing sixty men, with 
sales reaching nearly $500,000 annually. 
They have a large flouring mill with a capa- 
city of 150 barrels per day. They own the 
Chamber of Commerce Building in Chicago, 
valued at $3,000,000. Up to 1892, when the 
Traverse City State Bank was organized, the 
firm did the entire banking business of the 
locality. 

Of Mr. Hannah's personal efforts in promot- 
ing the welfare of his town, his fellow, citizens 
will bear testimony. He was president of 
the city council on its organization and for 
many years afterwards, and has been for 
nearly thirty years a member of its school 
board. Politically, Mr. Hannah is a Repub- 
lican. In 1857 he represented his county in 
the lower house of the legislature. In 1864 
he was one of the electors who cast the vote 
of the state for President Lincoln for his sec- 
ond term. He is president of the Traverse 
City State Bank, of the Hannah .& Lay Mer- 
cantile Company, of the Chamber of Com- 
merce Safety Vault Co. of Chicago, and a 
director in the Traverse City Railroad Oom- 
•pany. 

Miss Annie Flinn, of New York city, be- 
came Mrs. Hannah in 1852. She died in 
1898, leaving two daughters and ason; Hattfe 
A., wife of J. F. Keeney, of Chicago; Julius 
T., cashier of the bank at Traverse City, and 
Claribel, at home. 



;^«ii! 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




THOMAS BIRKETT. 

BIRKETT, THOMAS. Mr. Birkett Avas 
born in the parish of Isel, Comberland 
county, England, January 10, 1833, where 
his parents, Thomas and Eleanor (McLean) 
Birkett resided. His education was received 
at the parish school. At the age of fourteen 
he was apprenticed to a miller. Five years 
later he came to America, first locating at 
Dresden, Yates county, N. Y., where he re- 
mained one year. In 1853 he came to Michi- 
gan, reaching the village of Dexter in August 
of that year, with less than five dollars in his 
pocket. 

He obtained a situation as third miller in 
the Dover Mills (Dover is a hamlet five miles 
north of Dexter on the Huron river) then 
owned by D. D. Sloan & Co., shortly after- 
ward being made foreman. He bought |Mr. 
Sloan's half interest in 1861 — on the death of 
that gentleman — ^later buying the other half 
interest. 

In 1867 he bought the Hudson Mills, sit- 
uated one mile farther down the river. He 
operated these mills until 1882, when he or- 
ganized the Birkett Manufacturing- Co. for 
the purpose of manufacturing wood pulp. 



selling the two mills to that company and re- 
tiring from the active management, but re- 
taining one-third of the stock. 

In 1888 the Dexter Mills came into his 
hands by assisting a friend. At the same time 
he bought the Peninsular mills, both of which 
he still owns, and more recently bought the 
Pinckney mills. In 1885 he built a pulp mill 
at Petoskey, Mich., on Bear Creek, one of the 
best water powers in the state, since changed 
to a woodenAvare manufactory. 

In 1893 Mr. Birkett assisted in orecanizino; 
the Dexter Savings Bank, capitalized at 
$20,000.00, of which he has been president 
since its organization. He is interested in 
pine lands in Alabama and Mississippi. He 
lives on a farm five miles north of Dexter, 
located on the banks of the Huron river and 
Portage lake. For many years a postoffice was 
kept at his place, known as ^^Birkett." He 
was postmaster for over twenty years, but 
now gets his mail at Dexter. 

He has recently purchased the homestead 
of the late Judge S. W. Dexter, with its fine 
old mansion. Judge Dexter gave his name to 
the village, and his residence, standing on an 
eminence a little to the west, has been for 
years a prominent landmark. 

Portage lake also suggests another reminis- 
cence. About sixty years ago one G. R. Lilli- 
bridge, who owned the land now comprising 
part of Mr. Birkett's farm, ^ ^discovered'' a 
mineral spring, platted a ^^city'' which he 
called "New Saratoga,'' which name can be 
found on some of the early maps of the state. 
A small one-story building which he called the 
''White Cottage" composed the ''city." He 
was sixty years too soon, as the place is now 
getting to be quite a resort — and the visionary 
scheme of Lillibridge may some day become 
a reality. 

May 1st, 1855, Mr. Birkett married Mrs. 
S. A. Grundon (nee Wood) daughter of James 
Wood, Manchester, England. Their only 
child, Eleanor J., is the wife of the Hon. H. 
W. IvTewkirk, present Judge of Probate of 
Washtenaw county. Mrs. Birkett died in 
1892. 



HISTGKICAL SKETCHES. 



42? 



EAMSDELL, JONATHAN GANNETT, 

No name is better known in Michigan than is 
that which heads this sketch. Judge Kams- 
dell is of New England stock by his father, 
Gannett Ramsdell, and his mother, Anna 
Perin, both natives of Massachusetts. They 
settled in Plymouth, Michigan, in 1827, and 
the son, J. G., the third of four sons, was born 
there January 10, 1830. His early life was 
divided between work on the farm and at- 
tendance at school. He entered the village 
academy of Northville and the academy at 
Plymouth, from which he went to Albion 
College. On returning home he learned the 
trade of a moulder and finisher. He then took 
a course in a commercial college, and after 
graduating became bookkeeper for a Cincin- 
nati commission house, and later in banking 
houses in Detroit and Adrian. While at Ad- 
rian he commenced the study of law with the 
late Congressman, Hon. Fernando C. Bae- 
man. Close study and confinement, however, 
undermined his health, and he spent a winter 
in the lumber woods, cutting and skidding 
logs. In the spring he helped run the river 
and through the summer was tail sawyer. The 
next winter he acted as head sawyer, and in 
the following spring, having regained his 
health, resumed the study of law with Judge 
Longyear, of Lansing. In 1857 he was ad- 
mitted to the bar and was the same year ap- 
pointed circuit court commissioner for Ing- 
ham county, by Gov. Bingham. He was 
school inspector and chairman of the board 
in the township of Lansing, and was elected 
first city clerk, holding the office one month, 
when he resigned upon his appointment as 
clerk of the Supreme Court at Lansing. This 
position he held until 1861, when he re- 
signed to enter the Agricultural College as 
special lecturer on commercial customs and 
commercial law and double entry bookkeep- 
ing. On the completion of that course he 
removed to Traverse City. Mr. Kamsdell 
had married February 3rd, 1861, Mrs. Clara 
A. Phillips, of Lansing, and in the fall of 
1861 they came on horseback down the lake 
shore to Frankfort and across the trail (there 
were no roads in northern Michigan then) to 
what is now Traverse City, arriving there in 
October of that year. A tract of land was 
bought adjoining what is now the city of 
Traverse City, and which under Judge Eams- 
delFs cultivation has since developed into the 
famous Eamsdell fruit farm. 




JONATHAN GANNETT RAMSDELL. 

On the organization of the Thirteenth Judi- 
cial Circuit Mr. Eamsdell was elected Circuit 
Judge, and was re-elected at the next succeed- 
ing election. On the expiration of the second 
term he declined a renomination, and entered 
into practice. At the next judicial election 
he was again elected Circuit Judge and was 
again re-elected. 

Judge Eamsdell has been president of the 
Grand Traverse Union Agricultural Society, 
of the State Pomological Society, and of the 
West Michigan Agricultural and Industrial 
Society, of which latter he was a director; 
commissioner for Michigan to the American 
Pomological Society at Chicago in 1875, and 
at Boston in 1879, and a member of the Colum- 
bian Fair Committee for Michigan Fruits. 
For many years he has been chairman of the 
executive committee of the State Grange. 
He was originally an Abolitionist and subse- 
quently a Eepublican, but became known as 
a Silver Eepublican in 1896, when he was 
the Democratic-Combination candidate for 
Congress in his district, and was chairman of 
the Michigan delegation to the Silver Eepub- 
lican convention at Kansas City in 1900. 
Under the new order of things he is politically 
classified as a Democrat, and was nominated 
for Lieutenant Governor by the Democratic 
convention held in Detroit, July 25, 1900, 



428 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




HORACE TUPPER, M. D. 

TUPPER, HORACE, M. D. Dr. Tapper 
came to his profession by inheritance, his 
father, Archilius Tupper, having been a phy- 
sician at Pine Plains, Columbia county, N. Y., 
near which place the son was born October 2, 
1830. His mother, Leah Strever, was of the 
same locality (Columbia county). He studied 
with his father until twenty years old, when 
he went to Buffalo and entered Dr. Erank 
Hamilton's office as a student. He had full 
access to the "Sisters' General Hospital," re- 
maining there through the whole term of 
Prof. Hameton's charge of the surgical side 
of the hospital. He then entered the Ed- 
wards Street Female Hospital iri Buffalo, 
where he combined study and practice for two 
years. When the War of the Rebellion broke 
out he attached himself to the Fourteenth 



Regulars and was soon changed to the Sec- 
ond Brigade, Sixth Division, and was as- 
signed to service in the batteries of the Sixth 
Division, Army of the Tennessee, as surgeon, 
with the rank of major. He remained with 
his battery until reaching Corinth, Miss., and 
saw service at the battles of Pittsburg Land- 
ing, Farmington, Corinth, and a number of 
minor engagements. He became interested 
with Samuel Bolton in building a salt block 
in connection with a sawmill that they pur- 
chased. The plan of the salt block was to use 
exhaust steam from the mill. Also to use the 
slabs and sawdust to make live steam to keep 
up the required amount of heat to crystalize 
the salt. The plan proved successful and was 
quickly adopted by others, and is still used by 
the salt blocks in the valley. 

The doctor soon found that he was the only 
surgeon in the locality, and his services were 
in great demand at the then village of Bay 
City and nearby points. In fact, he was the 
only surgeon in that part of the valley for 
fifteen years, and up to the present time he is 
very busy in his professional work. The 
doctor is a member of the G. A. R. and has 
been commander of H. P. Merrill Post of 
Bay City. Miss Elizabeth Trinder, an Eng- 
lish lady, daughter of Wm. Trinder, of Chad- 
wington, Oxfordshire, England, became Mrs. 
Tupper, at Buffalo, December 24, 1862. 
Their one son, Horace, Jr., is an attorney at 
Bay City. , 

In politics the doctor is a Republican, 
worked energetically for the re-election of 
Abraham Lincoln. He never could be in- 
duced to accept any political office. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



429 



DEMPSEY, JAMES. Mr. J)einpsey was 
born in Roscommon county, Ireland, April 
10, 1832. His father was a farmer who emi- 
grated to this country in 1847, settling at 
Scranton, Pa., where he died in 1857; his 
first wife, the mother of James, having died 
in Ireland. A young man of 22, James 
Dempsey went to Manistee in August, 1854, 
with no equipment but his own brain and 
brawn. The next winter he went to the 
woods in the logging camps of the Canfield 
Brothers, a year later taking charge of one 
of their camps, and during summer deliver- 
ing logs at the mill booms. He continued 
in their service until 1871. In 1869 hs 
formed a partnership with A. E. Cartier and 
they together undertook the work of boom- 
ing and- assorting the logs on the Manistee 
river, which at that time aggregated about 
1,000,000 feet per year. In 1873 the firm 
of Dempsey & Cartier bought the Green & 
Milmoe property on Manistee lake and for 
ten years engaged in the manufacture of 
lumber, in 1883 incorporating the business 
under the name of the Manistee Lumber Com- 
pany, of which Mr. Dempsey was made presi- 
dent, Mr. Cartier and Wm. Wente being the 
other two stockholders originally, although 
several other parties have since become inter- 
ested in the plant. The capital stock is $402,- 
500, all of which is paid in. The concern has 
been very successful in all of its operations 
and has acquired valuable mill holdings and 
timber lands, making it one of the most sub- 
stantial institutions of this character in the 
state. This company has recently acquired 
the ownership of the Eureka mill and salt 
block. The two plants of the company cover 
about fifty acres of ground, and the company 
has a dockage on Manistee lake, of about a 
mile and a half, including slips. The capa- 
city of the company's dock is about 12,000,- 
000 feet, the entire output of the mills being 
shipped by water. The Manistee mill has a 
capacity of 30,000,000 feet of lumber and 
10,000,000 lath annually, and the Eureka 
mill a daily capacity of 120,000 feet of lum- 
ber, 30,000 lath, 20,000 staves and 900 bar- 
rels of salt. One hundred men are employed 
in the Manistee plant and 180 in the Eureka. 
The timber lands of the company are situated 
in Kalkaska and Crawford counties and repre- 
sent about six years cut. The company has 
constructed a narrow guage railroad, incor- 




JAMES DEMPSEY. 

porated under the name of the Crawford & 
Manistee River Railroad, thirteen miles in 
length. While the foregoing statistics are 
not, strictly speaking, a part of Mr. Demp- 
sey's personal biography, they are insepar- 
able from it. In addition to his large hold- 
ings in Michigan, Mr. Dempsey owns about 
10,000 acres of long leaf yellow pine timber 
in the Pearl River section of the Mississippi, 
also about 25,000 acres of timber lands in 
the state of AVashington. 

Politically, Mr. Dempsey is a Democrat of 
the gold standard faith. He was postmaptor 
at Manistee under President Buchanan and 
under the first Cleveland regime, and served 
one term as mayor of the city of Manistee, 
but has generally declined public office. His 
religious connection is Roman Catholic. 
Miss Mary Mullen, daughter of Michael Mul- 
len of Racine, Wis., became Mrs. Dempsey 
June 30, 1861. Twelve children have been 
the fruit of the union, eleven of whom are 
living. Lawrence T. and James W., super- 
intendent and cashier respectively of the 
Manistee Lumber Co.; John, civil engineer 
in the employ of the United States govern- 
ment in Central America; Louis, lumberman 
at Williams, Arizona ; Frank, bookkeeper at 
the Manistee Lumber Co.; Nellie, wife of 
John r. Clancy, Racine, Wis. ; Cecelia, wife 
of James W. Duncan, Milwaukee, WR ; 
Emma, Henrietta, Neal and Estelle, at home. 



^kiO 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




ANTOINE E. CARTIER. 

OARTIEK, ANTOINE E. Mr. Cartier 
is at present a resident of Ludington. He is 
of French-Canadian origin, the name being 
prominent in political circles in the province 
of Quebec. He was born at Three Rivei\s, 
Canada, May 16, 1836. His parents, J ohr, 
Baptiste and Rozelle (Counquene) Cartier, 
were farmers. He had school privileges only 
during winters by a walk of three miles from 
home, and at 12 years of age became a farmer 
boy at meagre wages. When 18 years old 
he took a contract getting out square timber 
on the Ottawa river, for the Quebec market. 
In the fall of 1854, giving his parents $50 of 
his small resources, reserving $75 for himse.'f , 
he went to Chicago and the next year took a 
sailboat to Manistee. He here went to work 
in a sawmill operated by Joseph Smith, 
where he worked two years, taking Smith's 
note for his pay, and when Smith failed, his 
note failed with him. He then went to Avork 
for D. L. Filer, working in his mill during 
the summer and as foreman of logging cataps 
in winter, being thus employed four Vo-ars. 
In July, 1862, he struck out on his own ac- 
count, looking up and estimating standing 



timber, and made $16,000 that year. In 
1863, in connection with James Dempsey, he 
took a five-year contract sorting and deliver- 
ing the logs that came down the Manistee 
river, continuing in this work fifteen years 
and employing fifty men and two tugs, and 
while so engaged he organized the Manistee 
Tug Co. In 1877 Cartier and Dempsey took 
a five-year contract from the boom company 
at Ludington, and Mr. Cartier's removal to 
that place followed. In 1879 he bono;lit 
Dempsey's interest at Ludington, and in con- 
nection with Frank Filer, started the Cartier 
it Filer Lumber Co., which was sold in 1882 
to the present Butters & Peters Lumber Co. 
In 1882 Mr. Cartier purchased a one-t)iird 
interest in the Goodsell & Allen Lumber Co., 
of Ludington, and the next year bought out 
his partners and organized the Cartier Lum- 
ber Co. The plant was burned in 1894. but 
rebuilt the same year. It employs 125 hands 
and turns out 15,000,000 to 18,000,000 feet 
of lumber per year. 

The energy, industry, probity and business 
acumen with which Mr. Cartier started out 
in life as his only capital, are now represented 
by holdings of which he is equally unwilling 
to boast or to complain. He is president of 
the Cartier Lumber Co. of Ludington, a 
director in the Manistee Lumber Co. of Man- 
istee, of which he was vice-president for a 
number of years, vice-president of the IsTorth- 
ern -Michigan Transportation Co., a steam- 
boat line operating between Chicago, 111., and 
Cheboygan, Mich., and president of the Car- 
tier Enameling Co. of Ludington, making 
turned and enameled wooden appliances. Mr. 
Cartier is a Democrat, politically, and served 
as alderman and mayor of Ludington, two 
years in each office, and while at Manistee 
served also two years as alderman. His reli- 
gious connections are Eoman Catholic, and he 
is a member of the order of Elks. Miss Liza 
Ayers, of Vermont state, became Mrs. Car- 
tier in 1859. They have eight children: 
Eose, wife of C. W. Spear, Westfield, Mass. ; 
Louis A., in the towing business at Ashland, 
Wis.; Warren A., secretary-treasurer Cartier 
Lumber Co., Ludington; Ida S., wife of W. 
S. Taylor, Brunsmck, Ga.; George K., vice- 
president Cartier Lumber Co., Ludington; 
Dezera E., grocer, Ashland, Wis. ; Wm. E., 
mining expert, Chicago, 111.; Chas. E., man- 
ager Cartier Enameling Co., Ludington. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



431 



BAART, REV. PETER A. Rev. Peter 
A. Baart, S. T. L., LL. D., at present is 
rector of St. Mary's Catholic church, in Mar- 
shall. He is probably the best known Ro- 
man Catholic priest in Michigan. He was 
born at Coldwater July 28, 1858. After at- 
tending public and private schools, he was 
sent to St. Vincent's College, Latrobe, Pa., 
at an early age and afterward to Mt. St. 
Mary's, at Cincinnati, in both of which col- 
leges he took the class prizes year after year, 
finishing his philosophical course with highest 
honors. After nearly completing his theo- 
logical course in Cincinnati, he went to St. 
Mary's University in Baltimore, where, after 
two years, in 1880, he obtained the degree 
of licentiate of sacred theology. While still 
a deacon (too young for the priesthood), he 
acted as secretary, temporarily, to Bishop 
Borgess, of Detroit. He was ordained to the 
priesthood June 29, 1881, and made assistant 
of Holy Trinity Church in Detroit. Eight 
months later he went to Marshall, at the 
urgent request of Bishop Borgess and took 
charge of a parish then badly disorganized. 
His untiring zeal and hard labor, coupled 
with an unswerving will and a tact that har- 
monizes discordant elements in a quiet way, 
built up St. Mary's parish spiritually and 
materially, so that now it boasts of one of the 
handsomest churches and parish properties in 
the state. 

Dr. Baart is an authority on church law, 
several important matters having been re- 
ferred to him from Rome for report or settle- 
ment, and he is likewise consulted by bishops 
and priests from all parts of the United States. 
He has written a number of works besides 
contributing to encyclopedias, magazines and 
newspapers, including a synopsis of Catholic 
belief for general circulation. In 1886 he 
prepared a history of all the Catholic orphan 
asylums and charitable institutions in the 
United States. His works, "The Roman 
Court," a treatise on the Cardinals and Sacred 
Congregations, and his "Legal Formulary," 
embracing forms and a synopsis of law for 
diocesan and parish work, received special 
commendation from the Pope of Rome. In 
1899 he prepared a paper on "Church and 




REV. PETER A. BAART. 

State in the United States" for the Australa- 
sian Catholic Congress held in Sydney, and 
in 1900 a paper on the "Tenure of Catholic 
Property in the United States" for the Inter- 
national Congress of Scientists held in Mu- 
nich, Bavaria. Dr. Baart was a meml>er and 
secretary of the diocesan school board and the 
first fiscal procurator, or legal officer, of De- 
troit diocese. In 1890 Bishop Foley declared 
him one of the four irremovable rectors of 
the diocese and he was also chosen one of the 
examiners of the clergy. In 1900 the board 
of trustees and the faculty of Notre Dame Uni- 
versity unanimously conferred upon Rev. Dr. 
Baart the degree of Doctor of Laws. Rev. Dr. 
Baart, while liberal-minded, is still quite con- 
servative. He is not an extremist, but politic 
and a good business man. As a public speaker 
he is clear, logical and concise. Socially, he 
is very entertaining and there is a merry 
twinkle in his eyes, which tells of his good 
nature, while his face suggests the student 
and the leader. He is recognized as one of 
the most liberal and public-spirited citizens of 
Marshall, being always ready to assist in move- 
ments for the public good. On his return 
home from Europe some years ago he was 
given the most imposing public reception ever 
tendered a resident of Marshall, all classes of 
citizens, non-Catholic as well as OathoUc, 
turning out to welcome him. 



402 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




CHARLES T. HILLS. 

HILLS, CHARLES T. Mr. Hills is a 
retired business man of Muskegon. He was 
born at Bennington, Vermont, jSTov. 14, 1821, 
the son of Turner and Adelia (Hubbel) Hills. 
In 1834 the family removed to Pittstown, N. 
Y., and in 1838 to Grand Rapids, Mich. 
Charles T. attended the district schools at 
Bennington until 13 years of age, Avhen he 
secured a clerkship in a store at Troy, IST. Y., 
and on the removal of the family to Michigan, 
accompanied them there. In December, 
1838, the family removed to Konkle's Mill, in 
Alpine township, in Kent county, and in the 
spring of 1839 bought forty acres of govern- 
ment land on which they erected a two-room 
shanty, of which they took possession in No- 
vember, 1840, their nearest neighbor being 
three miles distant. The father died in 1842 
and the care of the family devolved largely 
upon the son, who built a house about 1846 
into which the family removed. The first in- 
troduction of Charles T. to the lumber indus- 
try was in riving shingles, which were then 
all made by hand, the fruit of his labor con- 
tributing towards the support of the f amiily. In 
May, 1852, Charles, with a younger brother, 
went to Muskegon and building a shanty on 



Black creek, engaged in shingle weaving. In 
September, 1853, Charles engaged as clerk 
with the sawmill firm of Ryerson & Morris, 
and continued with them until 1859, when he 
took charge of the books of the firm. In 18G5 
he became a partner in the newly-formed firm 
of Ryerson, Hills & Co., and in connection 
with Mr. Getty, another partner, had the 
management of the then large and increas; 
ing business, and in 1887 the active manage 
ment fell entirely into his hands, the other 
partners having removed to Chicago. Mr. 
Hills was for more than forty years the ruling 
spirit in an immense business, the various 
changes in w^hich and improvements in plant 
it would be impracticable to trace in this con- 
nection. 

In his earlier life Mr. Hills held the office 
of supervisor of Alpine township and in 1876 
was elected treasurer of Muskegon county, 
which are the only public ofiices he ever held. 
From 1876 to 1887 he was president of the 
Muskegon IN'ational Bank. He was one of the 
incorporators of the Oceana County Savings 
Bank at Hart, and was largely interested in 
the Muskegon Booming Co., of which he was 
for many years president, serving also in other 
official capacities. It goes without saying that 
he has at all times borne an important part in 
all enterprises tending to the material, social 
and moral advancement of Muskegon. This 
is exemplified in his having built and donated 
to the Masonic fraternity of Muskegon a tem- 
ple costing $50,000, which was dedicated 
Sept. 12, 1900, being the second largest in 
Michigan. He is an enthusiastic Mason and 
has published a leaflet giving; in brief his Ma- 
sonic record. He has the higher degrees in 
the various orders of Masonry and has filled 
the chairs in most of the local bodies, and was 
for fourteen consecutive years eminent com- 
mander of the Muskegon Commandery, 1868- 
81, and was elected to a fifteenth term in 1886. 
Mr. Hills has been twice married. By his 
first wife. Miss Jane M. Wheeler, of Wauke- 
gan. 111., to whom he was married in 1854, he 
had six children, two of Avhom only are living, 
C. Hubbell, private secret-ary to his father, 
and Julia L., wife of T. D. Whitney, of Chi- 
cago. Mrs. Hills died in 1876, and in 1878 
Mr. Hills married Miss Margaret Mclntyre, 
of Kewaunee, 111. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



438 



McDONELL, ARCHIBALD. The grand- 
father of Mr. McDonell came from Inverness, 
Scotland, in 1810, and settled in Nova Scotia, 
and during the ocean voyage, a son, father of 
the present, was born. A branch of the fam- 
ily were, however, earlier settlers in Canada. 
Archibald McDonell was born at St. Andrews, 
Nova Scotia, January 1, 1833. After pass- 
ing the grammar school at his home, he fol- 
lowed teaching for several years, but decided 
to locate in the United States, and choose the 
law as his profession. He came to Michigan 
and took the then two-year law course at the 
University, graduating in 1861. He located 
at what is now Bay City, then a village of 
about 700 people, and called Lower Saginaw. 
He was for three months a partner with A. 
C. Maxwell (still a resident there and late cir- 
cuit judge) and was subsequently for eleven 
years a partner with the late Judge Theo. C. 
Grier, and later with George P. Cobb. For 
eight years immediately prior to September, 
1899, he was a partner of DeVere Hall, the 
firm name being McDonell & Hall. His 
present partner is James E. Duify, a graduate 
of Michigan University, the firm being Mc- 
Donell & Duffy. During his thirty-nine 
years' residence in Bay City, he has seen the 
population of about 700 grow to over 35,000 
with a town of 15,000 across the Saginaw 
river, and a corresponding increase in the 
other towns of the valley, so that his city may 
be said to have grown up under his personal 
observation, which is largely true also of the 
neighborhood towns. In his early life he was 
engaged in business enterprises and his re- 
sources have never failed to reward his capa- 
city for business. He has for many years had 
liberal investments in banking, real estate and 
in a mercantile house in Bay City, the Mc- 
Donell Hardware Co., of which his sons by a 
first marriage are managers. Mr. McDonell 
is a Democrat in politics and while not having 
sought public office, he has served at different 
times as Circuit Court commissioner and was 
for two terms mayor of the city, his service in 
this office covering the centennial year 1876. 




ARCHIBALD McDONELL. 

He was one of the first trustees of the Bay 
City public library and is still a trustee, a 
continuous service of twenty-six years. He is 
president of the McDonell Hardware Co., 
chairman of the Crapo Building Co., director 
and attorney of the Bay City bank and vice- 
president of the Michigan Mining & Coal Co., 
operating in the valley. He was a member of 
the Democratic state central committee 1874- 
76, a delegate to the Chicago convention in 
1896 and candidate for elector-at-large that 
year. He has operated a farm of about 176 
acres near Bay City for thirty-five years, his 
having been among the first cleared farms in 
Bay county. He is a member of the Elks. 
Mr. McDonell was married in Bay City in 
1863 to Miss Mary J. Day, daughter of Joel 
L. Day, of St. Lawrence county, IsT. Y. She 
died in February, 1896. In July, 1898, Mrs. 
Henry P. Parsons, of Ann Arbor, became 
Mrs. McDonell. He has five daughters, 
Mary, Louise, Jessie and Genevieve, who 
were educated in the Sacred Heart Convent, 
and Winnifred, who is attending the Bay Oity 
public school. They are all at home, save 
when absent at school. 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




HENRY DAVID CAMPBELL. 

CAMPBELL, HENRY DAVID. It goes 
without saying that a Campbell springs from 
a Scotch ancestry. David Campbell came 
from Scotland in 1628 and settled in New 
Hampshire, and from him Henry David is 
descended. The parents of Henry D., Eobert 
A. and Harriet E. (Hitchcock) Campbell v/ere 
farmers near Hogansburgh, Franklin county, 
N. Y., where Henry D. was born March 11, 
1831. He attended the local schools, l)iit 
when large enough to work, only during tl:e 
winter months. During the last two winters 
at school he acted as assistant teacher, the 
school being a large one (nearly 100 pupils), 
and Campbell being one of the older boys, 
taught several classes. He remained with his 
father until he was of age, without fixed com- 
pensation. The last year the father gave the 
use of the farm to him and his brother, givine* 
them all they could make from it for the year, 
and they each cleared $600. Henry D. then 
became clerk in a store for two or three years 
and in 1852 came west 'in quest of a position 
and whatever the fates might have in store 
for him. At Chicago he met a friend wlio 
was going to Traverse City to work for the 



well-known firm of Hannah, Lay & Co., and 
together they embarked on the first propeller 
that stopped at Traverse City, then but a small 
lumber hamlet. Finding that Mr. Campbell 
had business experience, the firm gave him a 
position and after the first season he was put 
in charge of their inside work as cashier. He 
continued in their employ for eight years, 
when he left to devote his whole time to a 
stage line in which he was interested, center- 
ing at Traverse City and running to Big Kap- 
ids and Cheboygan, and was thus employed 
until 1874. In 1873 he built the Campbell 
House at Traverse City (now the Park Place 
Hotel), which he managed until 1878, when 
he sold out on account of the ill-health of his 
wife. In 1881, under a franchise from the 
then village of Traverse City, he built and in- 
stalled a water Avorks plant, one of the most 
modern in Michigan, having twelve miles of 
mains, which he sold to the city in May, 1900. 
In 1889 he built the electric lighting plant, 
which he sold in May, 1900, to the Boardman 
River Electric Light & Power Co. Freed 
from other activity, Mr. Campbell is content 
to call himself a farmer, in the declining years 
of a useful and well-spent life. 

Mr. Campbell has served as Judge of Pro- 
bate of Grand Traverse county for twelve 
years. He was County Treasurer 1857-9, 
when the county embraced the whole north- 
w^estern part of the lower peninsula. He re- 
quired three weeks to make the journey to 
Lansing to settle his accounts, and being the 
first County Treasurer he had to make several 
trips in the interests of the new county, and its 
largely extended territory. Mr. Campbell is 
a Republican in politics and a member of the 
Masonic fraternity, including the Knights 
Templar. Miss Catherine A. Carmichael, 
who from her name may also be supposed to be 
of Scotch descent, became Mrs. Campbell at 
Traverse City in 1862. Mr. and Mrs. Camp- 
bell have four sons and a daughter, Donald F., 
an electrician. Flora A., wife of W. J. Hobbs, 
Willard H., electrical engineer, David R., far- 
mer (Grawn), and Wallie G., with the city 
electric light department, all of Traverse City. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



>VADE, CHARLES FREDERICK. Mr. 

Wade is one of the comparatively few in our 
American life who find a field worthy of their 
activities at home. Born at Jonesville, Mich., 
May 9, 1860, he has been prospered and hon- 
ored in the place of his birth, and has contrib- 
uted in a corresponding degree to its growth 
and prosperity. The father of Mr. Wade is 
the well-known secretary of the State Uni- 
versity at Ann Arbor, James H. Wade. His 
mother was Elizabeth A. Sibbald, of Jones- 
ville. Mr. Wade graduated from the Jones- 
ville schools in 1880 and at once entered upon 
active life as bookkeeper in the general store 
of John A. Sibbald & Co., of Jonesville. Two 
years later he was made cashier of Grrosvenor 
& Co.'s Exchange Bank of the same place, 
holding this position for eighteen years. 
Early in the fall of 1898 the pushing element 
of Jonesville began agitating the establish- 
ment of a Portland cement works in the town. 
The project took definite proportions early in 
1899, and the company was formally organ- 
ized as the Omega Portland Cement Co. in 
February of that year. Mr. Wade took an 
active interest in the project from the first, sev- 
ering his connection with the bank in order to 
give it his undivided attention. He was one 
of a committee of six that placed the stock of 
$300,000, all of which was subscribed. The 
company, as organized, was oflicered as fol- 
lows: President, Frank M. Stewart, Hills- 
dale; vice-president, Israel Wickes, Jones- 
ville; secretary and treasurer, Charles F. 
Wade, Jonesville; chemical superintendent, 
Prof. E. D. Campbell, of the University of 
Michigan, Ann Arbor; mechanical superin- 
tendent, Geo. H. Sharpe, of Jonesville. The 
company began building operations in July, 
1899, putting up what is known as a five-rotary 
plant, with a capacity of 625 barrels in 24 
hours, containing machinery strictly up to 
date in every particular, as attested by the 
best judges. The buildings are of brick, with 
steel roofs. The site comprises two hundred 
acres of marl land with 40 acres additional, on 
which the company is erecting cottages and a 
large boarding house for employes. The plant 




CHARLES FREDERICK WADE. 

is reached by the company's own siding, which 
taps the main line of the Lake Shore & Michi- 
gan Southern Railway, and the Fort Wayne, 
Jackson & Lansing branch, three and one-half 
miles from Jonesville. The company has ex- 
tensive storage rooms, the controlling thought 
being to store their product until it is in the 
best condition for market. The company 
will employ about one hundred men. 

Mr. Wade has served the municipality of 
Jonesville as a member of the village council 
for several terms, and as president of the vil- 
lage one term. In the last-named capacity he 
bent every energy toward the building of the 
water works and electric light plant and the 
construction of the cement walks and improve- 
ments generally. He is a stockholder in the 
Grosvenor Savings Bank and is connected in 
the real estate business with Hon. E. O. Gros- 
venor, who has for half a century been one of 
the foremost men of southern Michigan, and 
has held many responsible public trusts, in- , 
eluding those of state treasurer and lieutenant- 
governor; Mr. Wade is a member of the 
order of the Knights of Pythias and the United 
Workmen. Miss Minnie A. Curtiss, daughter 
of William S. Curtiss, of Jonesville, became 
Mrs. Wade October 20, 1882. They have no 
children. 



MEN OF PROGEESS. 




THOMAS HUME. 



HUME, THOMAS. Mr. Hume was born 
in County Down, Ireland, June 16, 1848. 
His parents, William and Mary Ann (Bailie) 
Hume, were farmers, and reared a family of 
eight children, of whom four were sons, 
Thomas being the oldest son and second child. 
He attended the Eoyal Belfast Academical 
Institution at Belfast, and when fourteen 
years of age was apprenticed to a wholesale 
and retail hardware and grocery mercham 
named John Stevenson, at Dungannon, for 
six years, with no salary other than his sub- 
sistence. At the end of two years he was put 
into the office as cashier, and later was made 
buyer and stock keeper. After serving hib 
six years he served the same house two years 
more at salaries of $250 and $350 per year 
respectively. Finding no business opening ac 
home, in May, 1870, he took passage for 
America, and landed at Quebec on the seven- 
teenth of the same month. Having some rela- 
tives at Marshall, Michigan, he headed for 
that point, and under their advice that men 
were in demand at Muskegon, he went there, 
where he has since resided. He found em- 
ployment there as tallyman for George R. 
Selkirk, and in the fall went into the woods 



and engaged in scaling logs for O. P. Pills- 
bury & Co. The following summer he en- 
gaged with Montague & Hamilton, lumber 
inspectors of Muskegon, as an inspector, and 
remained with them until the fall of 1872. 
He then entered the employ of Hackley & 
McGordon as bookkeeper, in which service he 
remained nearly nine years, or until June, 
1881. He then purchased the interest of Mr. 
McGordon in the firms of Hackley & McGor- 
don and C. H. Hackley & Co. The firm of 
Hackley & Hume succeeded the first named 
firm, and on the death of Porter Hackley, of 
C. H. Hackley & Co., the business of both 
firms was consolidated under the name of 
Hackley & Hume and has so continued up to 
the present time. Their interests embrace 
300,000 acres of southern timber lands in the 
States of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and 
South Carolina, in addition to their home 
plant. They are large stockholders in the 
Itasca Lumber Company and the H. C. Ake- 
ley Lumber Company, both of Minneapolis. 
Mr. Hume has held various offices in both 
companies, and is at present vice-president of 
the Itasca Lumber Company and treasurer 
of the H. C. Akeley Lumber Company He 
is secretary and treasurer of the Amazon Knit- 
ting Company, treasurer of the Chase-Hack- 
ley Piano Company, the Standard Malleable 
Iron Company and of the Alaska Eefrigera- 
tor Company, president of the Sergeant Man- 
ufacturing Company, vice-president of the 
Shaw Electric Crane Company, of the 'Na- 
tional Lumberman's Bank, and of the Hack- 
ley National Bank, all of Muskegon. 

Miss Margaret A. Banks, daughter of Maj. 
Banks, of Marshall, became Mrs. Hume Jan- 
uary 22nd, 18Y3. To them have been born 
seven children — Margaret B., born December 
11, 1873; Helen M., August 29, 1875 ; Annie 
E., March 29, 1877 ; George Alexander, July 
20, 1881; Flore:nce V., November 11, 1884; 
Constance, November 25, 1886, and Thomas 
Hackley Hume, July 2, 1888. As may be 
judged from Mr. Hume's extensive business 
connections, he has acquired a worldly for- 
tune that may be described as fairly inde- 
pendent, the fruit of his native energy, his 
early business training, clear perceptions in 
business ventures, and above all, fidelity to 
his earlier trusts and upright and honorable 
dealing in his later enterprises. 



HiSTOUlCAL SKETCHES. 



437 



HACEXEY, CHARLES H. The name 
of Charles H. Hackley is impressed in so many 
forms upon the city of Muskegon that the 
name of the man and the place are insepara- 
ble. Mr. Hackley Was born at Michigan City, 
Ind., Jan. 3, 1837. At the age of fifteen he 
left school to assist his father, who was a con- 
tractor, engaged in railroad and plank road 
building, and at the age of seventeen was given 
a foreman's position in charge of a gang of 
men. The executive ability thus early mani- 
fested was but prophetic of what was to come 
after in a multiplied ratio. In April, 1856, 
Mr. Hackley came to Muskegon and entered 
the employ of Durkee, Truesdell & Co., lum- 
ber manufacturers, as a common laborer, but 
was soon promoted to the position of scaler and 
further advanced to that of foreman of all 
lumber hamlet. Finding that Mr. Campbell 
1858 he became the firm's bookkeeper. In 
the spring of 1859 he laid the foundation for 
one of those magnificent fortunes that have in 
so many cases rewarded the enterprise of those 
engaged in the lumber industry in Michigan. 
As a member of the firm of J. H. Hackley & 
Co., including his father, J. H. Hackley, and 
Gideon Truesdell, he was the active spirit in 
its work. They purchased the lumber plant 
of Pomeroy & Holmes, of Muskegon, and in 
1860 the Wing Mill property. On the death 
of Mr. Hackley's father, in 1874, and the 
subsequent death of two brothers, who had 
been associated in the business, the firm was 
reorganized as C. H. Hackley & Co., with 
James McGordon as partner, which continued 
until the death of the latter fourteen years 
later (1880), when his interests were acquired 
by Thomas Hume, since which time the firm 
has been Hackley & Hume. The firm has ex- 
tensive timber land and lumbering interests in 
Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Louisiana 
and Arkansas, and Mr. Hackley holds the posi- 
tion of president or director in a dozen or more 
manufacturing and banking institutions. 

Mr. Hackley's enduring monument, how- 
ever, will consist not in what he holds, but in 
what he has given away for public and bene- 
volent uses, of which the city of Muskegon 
will bear testimony as follows: Hackley 




CHARLES H. HACKLEY. 



Public Library, $125,000, endowed the same 
for $75,000; Hackley Square, $45,000; Sol- 
diers' and Sailors' Monument, $27,000, en- 
dowed the same for $10,000; Hackley Man- 
ual Training School, $105,000 for building 
and equipment, also annual contribution for 
its support, $12,000, and $100,000 for en- 
dowments; statues of Lincoln, Grant, Sherman 
and Farragut, $28,000; a total of $527,000, 
not to mention many minor benevolences. 

Mr. Hackley is a Eepublican and was a 
delegate to the Minneapolis convention in 1892 
and the St. Louis convention in 1896. He 
has served as county treasurer of Muskegon 
county, as a member of the common council 
and board of public works of Muskegon city, 
and for a number of years as a member of the 
school board, and was its president in 1892. 
At the spring election in 1895 he was elected 
a regent of the University, but did not serve, 
having simply qualified and resigned on the 
second day of the term, Jan. 2, 1896, 

In 1864 Mr. Hackley was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Julia E. Moore, of Centreville, 
N. Y., who now shares not only the good for- 
tune of her husband, but also enjoys with hiin 
its beneficent disposal. Mr. and Mrs. Hackley 
have no children* Mr. Hackley is in direct 
descent from Peter Hackley, who lived ftt 
New London, Conn., in 1690, 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




RASMUS HANSON. 

HANSOJf, RASMUS, of the firm of Sail- 
ing, Hanson & Co., Grayling, Mich., was born 
at Vester Kipping, Falster, Denmark, Oct. 
14, 1846. He attended the common schools 
until he was 14 years old, and was then 
confirmed in the Lutheran church. He 
worked on his father's farm until the fall of 
1863, when the war broke out between Den- 
mark and the German confederacy, when, in 
connection with another party, hje started 
out as an army sutler, but circumstances 
were unfavorable, and the venture yielded 
no profits. He returned to his father's 
farm, but found farm life too slow for his 
energies, and he finally agreed with his father 
to emigrate to America. He left home May 
3, 1865, and landed in New York the 15th. 
He decided to make for the interior, and 
located at Racine, Wis., where he hired out 
on a farm and worked four months. He 
then went to Manistee, Mich., where he met 
Mr. B. Sweet on the wharf and hired out at 
$20 per month. In a very short time he 
worked himself up to the position of fore- 
man for the firm, for whom he continued to 
work until 1867. Having accumulated a 
little money, he became associated with Ern- 
est N, Sailing in buying timber and lumber- 
ing it and selling the logs, and also getting 
out logs for other parties. In the fall of 
1871 he sold out to Engelman, Bab- 
cock & Sailing, and was engaged as woods^ 



manager by this firm, with whom he 
continued for two years. In the meantime 
he had associated himself with Nels Michel- 
son in jobbing and logging, and after leaving 
the employ of the former firm he organized 
the firm of Michelson, Hanson & Co., which 
in 1873 was merged in the new firm of R. 
Hanson & Co. This firm continued to oper- 
ate until the spring of 1878, when 
the name was changed to Sailing, Han- 
son & Co., Mr. Sailing having joined 
the new firm. This firm began operations at 
Grayling, putting logs into the Manistee 
river and selling them to parties at Manistee. 
In 1882 the firm commenced to manufacture 
lumber of its own, and bought out a small 
sawmill, which, in 1899, was superseded by 
a new mill with a capacity of 20,000,000 
a year. In 1892 a band mill and planing mill 
were added. The firm own a large amount of 
pine, and have hardwood timber covering 
about 60,000 acres. In 1900 the firm began 
the erection of a hardwood mill at Johannes- 
burg, a place which the company has just 
started, Mr. Hanson is also a member of 
the Michelson & Hanson Lumber Co., of 
Lewiston, Mich., having mills at Lewiston and 
at Sailings. He is a director of this company 
and general manager of his own company. 
He also helped to organize the Michigan 
Sugar Compan;f, the first sugar company or- 
ganized in Michigan, and also the Bay City 
Sugar Co., in both of which he is a director, 
and is interested in the Crawford County Ex- 
change Bank and other commercial and finan- 
cial enterprises. 

Mr. Hanson is a Republican, but disagrees 
with the party as to the treatment 
of the new possessions. He was an 
alternate to the Minneapolis convention in 
1892 and a member of the Michigan Electoral 
College in 1896. He was elected the first 
county treasurer of Crawford county in 1880 
and received the entire vote of his township. 
He has been a member of the local school 
board for 15 years, is a 32nd degree Mason, 
and is a member of the National and State 
Lumbermen's Associations, of the Michigan 
Club, the Hoo Hoos, etc. 

Mr. Hanson was married Sept. 17, 1867, to 
Miss Margrethe Hanson, and their five chil- 
dren are: Matilda, wife of H. A. Bauman, 
cashier of bank; Margrethe, at home; Thor- 
wald, manager of the company's business at 
Johannesburg; Espern, manager of mercan- 
tile business at Johannesburg, and Oscar, 
now employed as clerk in his father's store. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



NEWKIRK, DR. CHARLES T. Dr. 

Newkirk's paternal ancestors were from Ger- 
many, first settling in the region of the 
Catskill Mountains, N. Y. His grandfather, 
Peter ISTewkirk, removed to Canada and was 
an active partisan of Mackenzie in the re- 
bellion of '37-8. His father. Reverend Moses 
ISTewkirk, was born at Sinicoe, Ontario, where 
the son was also born December 10, 1842. 
His mother, Catherine Topping, was of Irish 
parentage. Dr. ISTewkirk had early educa- 
tional advantages, was a graduate of the Uni* 
versity of Toronto, and in 1863 was graduated 
as doctor of medicine from Victoria College 
of that city. He practiced for a short time 
in Canada and then with his family went to 
Buenos Ayres, S. A. Devoting some nine 
months to the study of the language, he re- 
ceived an appointment as "Doctor of the 
Province of Corrientes,'' and was also made 
surgeon of the Argentine Hospital, but re- 
signed after four months to enter the service 
of the Brazilian army as first surgeon of a 
division, with the rank of Major. After four 
years' service, at the close of the Brazil-Para- 
guyan war, he opened a drug store in connec- 
tion with the practice of his profession, at 
Assumption, Paraguay. His wife's health 
failing, he started on his return to the north, 
but as the yellow fever was then raging at 
Buenos Ayres, sending his family on to their 
destination, he remained there. His pro- 
fessional services were accepted by the gov- 
ernment, and he remained there, fighting the 
disease for four months, or until the epidemic 
had exhausted itself, the virulence of which 
may be judged by the fact that the record 
showed 26,000 deaths in 35 days. His ser- 
vices were highly applauded by the local 
press. Coming north in the fall of 1871, after 
visiting New York and Chicago, he decided 
to settle in Bay City. His knowledge of the 
Spanish language and his experience in army 
and yellow fever practice, pointed him out as 
most fit for service in the Spanish- American 
war, and yielding to the solicitations both of 
his friends and the government ha accepted 
an appointment and left for Santiago July 
12, 1898, and entered the yellow fever hos- 




DR. CHARLES T. NEWKIRK. 

pital there. After a few weeks' service, he 
was advanced to the position of brigade sur- 
geon with the rank of Major, on the recom- 
mendation of General Shafter and the de- 
partment surgeon. He remained at his post 
until his services were no longer needed, doing 
service in the hospitals in and around San- 
tiago and Siboney, despite greatly impaired 
health, and returned to Bay City in October. 
Dr. JS^ewkirk is a large contributor to Ameri- 
can Medical literature. He is a member of the 
American Medical Association, and of the 
State Medical Society, has served as vice- 
president of the latter, and was one of the or- 
ganizers of the Bay County Society. He 
served 10 years as county physician of Bay 
County and is local surgeori for several rail- 
roads. He was 12 years a member of the 
Board of Education and part of the time its 
president. Is a member of the Masonic Fra- 
ternity, and a- Republican in politics. Miss 
Mary J. Anderson became Mrs. Newkirk at 
Simcoe, September 10, 1863. Her father, 
John Anderson, late of Cleveland, O., was 
from Ireland and was a partisan of Macken- 
zie in the Canadian Rebellion of '37-8. 
Dr. and Mrs. Kewkirk have two children — 
Dolores, a graduate of the Leggett School in 
Detroit and of Vassar College, now living in 
ISTew York, and Harry N., surgeon for the 
American Steel Wire Co., of Chicago, with 
works at Ironwood, Mich. 



4^ 



MEN OF PHOGllESS. 




HENRY W. CAREY. 

CAKEY, HENKY W. Mr. Carey is a 
resident of East Lake, a suburb of the city of 
Manistee, and is a prominent factor in the 
business enterprises of the locality. He is 
secretary and treasurer of the R. G. Peters 
Salt and Lumber Company, of the Manistee 
& Luther Eailroad, and of the Batchelor 
Cyprus Lumber Company, with mills at 
Panasoffkee, Fla., is vice-president and treas- 
urer of the Peters Lumber and Shingle Com- 
pany of Benton Harbor, president of the Wol- 
verine Oil Company of Manistee, president of 
the Michigan Manufacturing Company 
(shingles and lath)<l)f Elk Rapids, and direc- 
tor of the News Publishing Company of Man- 
istee, and editor of the Manistee Times- 
Sentinel. 

Mr. Carey is a native of New York City, 
born in 1850. His educational course was 
completed at the college of the city of New 
York. Served his time in the 22nd N. Y. 
state troops, and at the time of his coming 
to Michigan held the rank of Captain in the 
Veteran Corps of that regiment. He came 
to Michigan in 1881 and entered the employ 
of E. G. Peters as private secretary. His in- 
tegrity, character and systematic business 



habits gave him rapid advancement, until 
there are few men now in Michigan having 
an equal number of responsible business con- 
nections. Although never having held a po- 
litical office, he is prominent in the councils 
of the Republican party, of which he is a 
member, and is recognized as a leader in his 
part of the state. He was made a member 
of the State Central Committee in 1888 and 
since 1890 has been a member of its executive 
committee. He served six years as chairman 
of the Manistee County Committee, an equal 
length of time as secretary of the Con- 
gressional District Committee of the Ninth 
District, and was one year a vice-president of 
the National League of Republican Clubs. 
He has been a trustee of the school board of 
Eastlake for 18 years. In February, 1893, he 
was appointed by Governor Rich, Paymaster- 
General of Michigan State Troops, which po- 
sition he held four years, and from which he 
derived the title of Colonel. 

Col. Carey is a leading and somewhat en- 
thusiastic member of the order of the Mac- 
cabees. He became a member of the order 
in December,. 1889, when he assisted in or- 
ganizing Linten Tent No. 17, of Eastlake, of 
which he was elected Commander, and under 
his administration the Tent grew rapidly in 
membership, and in 1891 took the prize for 
the largest per cent of gain, having increased 
nearly 200 during the year. He has admin- 
istered the office of Deputy Great Com- 
mander, Great Chaplain, First Great Master 
of the Guard, and Great Lieutenant-Com- 
mander, to which latter he was elected at the 
Great Camp of the State in 1894. Colonel 
Carey is thoroughly posted on all matters per- 
taining to the workings of the order and has 
always been ready to respond and contribute 
to all of its gatherings. 

Miss May M. Ransom, daughter of Jona- 
than H. Ransom, of New York City, became 
Mrs. Carey in 1879. Three children, Mabel 
M., now traveling in Europe, and Archibald 
E. and Eleanor J., at school, are the fruit of 
the union. 



HTSTOMCAL SKETCHES. 



4||S 



MEEEIMAN, GEOEGE W. Mr. Mer- 
riman's first introduction to Michigan was in 
a business way, he having come to Plainwell 
to accept a position in a bank in which his 
uncle had an interest. He is of English 
lineage, his grandfather, Elisha Merriman, 
was a resident of Connecticut, and some of 
the older residents of the country may recall 
having seen or handled the wooden clocks, of 
which he was a well known manufacturer. 
His father, Elijah, was a resident of Savan- 
nah, N. Y., where the son was born Feb- 
ruary 4, 1851. His mother was Maria E. 
Winegar, of Springport, N. Y. The son 
attended the primary schools up to the age 
of lY, when he entered the High School of 
Clyde, N. Y., from which he graduated after 
a two-years- course. He then engaged in 
teaching and was principal of the Union 
School at South Butler, IST. Y., where he 
earned the first money he could call his own. 
He gave up an engagement for a second year 
at this place, to accept the situation at Plain- 
well, which had been tendered him. Com- 
mencing in a subordinate position at $50 per 
month, he remained in the bank until 1880, a 
period of about nine years, during which time 
he was promoted to the position of assistant 
and acting cashier. He then entered the law 
department of the University, graduating 
with the class of 1882. Locating at Hart- 
ford, an enterprising village of Van Buren 
County, he soon established a good practice, 
which he has maintained with a steady in- 
crease, up to the present time. 

In 1894 Mr. Merriman was elected to the 
State Senate from the Eighth Senatorial Dis- 
trict, composed of the counties of Allegan and 
Van Buren and was re-elected in 1896, serv- 
ing through the regular sessions of '95 and 
'97, and the special session of '98. As chair- 
man of the important Committee on Finance 
and Appropriations of the Senate during .his 
second term, he won a merited prominence 
by his careful scrutiny of the demands of the 




GEORGE W. MERRIMAN. 

many state institutions in the way of ap- 
propriations, and while not refusing what 
seemed just and reasonable, yet keeping the 
state tax levy, within the average limits of 
former years. He was also the father of the 
*^Merrinian" railroad taxation law, which has 
been so prominently before the public of late. 
Some years ago Mr. Merriman became 
identified with the manufacture of hardwood 
lumber, and has operated several sawmills in 
southwestern Michigan, with headquarters at 
Hartford, where he also has a mill in opera- 
tion. He is one of the leading Eepublicans 
in his part of the State, and was a delegate 
to the National Republican Convention at 
Minneapolis in 1892. In a commercial way 
also, he is a banker and dealer in and large 
holder of real estate, besides having farming 
interests to which he gives personal attention. 
He is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of 
the Oddfellows fraternity, of the Elks ana 
Maccabees. He has been twice married, first 
in 1882, to Miss Jennie Sherman of Plain- 
well, who died in 1888, leaving one son, Harry 
J., and in 1894 to Mrs. Jennie Smiley Phe|p|j, 
of Grand Rapids. 



m 



MEN OF PR0GEE8S. 




FRANK ADAMS PEAVEY. 

PEAVEY, FRA^^K ADAMS. Mr. 
Peavey represents the element of which the 
population of Michigan was almost wholly 
composed np to the middle of the present 
century, those of English extraction (remotely 
in most cases), with a contingent of Irish, 
forming the bulk of the population. His 
father, Charles C. Peavey, was descended 
from English stock and was born at Wolf- 
boro, N. H., coming from there to Marshall, 
Mich., in 1855, and removing to Battle Creek 
in 1865. His mother, Mary Adams, was a 
daughter of John Adams of Boston, one of 
the Adams family of Massachusetts. Frank 
A. Peavey was born in Marshall June 22, 
1860. He attended the public schools of 
Battle Creek and the Adventist College at 
that place, and in 1880 entered the employ of 
his grandfather. Colonel John Peavey, who 
kept a hide and leather store in Battle Creek, 
with whom he remained about three years. 
In 1883 he accepted a position with the Battle 
Creek Metal Back Album Company, repre- 
senting them on the road, and after about six 
months' service with them he entered the em- 



ploy of the Upton. Manufacturing Company 
of Battle Creek, as bookkeeper. In 1884 this 
concern moved their plant to Port Huron, 
Mr. Peavey continuing with them. In 1890 
the Upton Manufacturing Company was 
merged into the Port Huron Engine & 
Thresher Company, and Mr. Peavey was made 
general manager of the business. The com- 
pany is now capitalized at $500,000, with 
branches at Peoria, 111.; Cedar Rapids, la.; 
Manitowoc, ^Vis., and Wichita, Kan. The 
concern makes threshing machinery, traction 
engines, road rollers, power corn shellers and 
portable sawmills. The present year (1900) 
the company is introducing a special feature 
of the manufacture of road wagons, which, 
Vv^hen attached to a traction engine, can be 
used as a regular train, in the hauling over- 
land of beets, chicory, road materials, coal, 
etc. The Port Huron Engine & Thresher 
Company finds a ready sale for its output in 
the middle west. The healthy growth of the 
concern is shown by comparing the sales of 
1890, $100,000, with 1899, $1,000,000. 
Very much of this increase is due to judicious 
management under Mr. Peavey's administra- 
tion. The concern gives employment to about 
400 men. 

Aside from his connection with the Port 
Huron Engine & Thresher Company, of 
which he is secretary, treasurer and general 
manager, Mr. Peavey is a director in the Port 
Huron Manufacturing Company, and is in- 
terested in the Factory Land Company, the 
Threshermen's Keview Publishing Company, 
and the Koad Maker Publishing Company, 
all of Port Huron. He is a member of the 
Fellowcraft Club of Detroit, and of the Port 
Huron Club. Miss Alma Walker, daughter 
of Maciah Walker of Port Huron, became 
Mrs. Peavey in 1891. Mrs. Peavey's father 
was a Canadian by birth, his father (with his 
family), however, having been one of Port 
Huron's earliest settlers. Her mother, Mary 
Innis, was of St. Clair. Mr. and Mrs. Peavey 
have no children. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



448 



BOIIDEMA?^, DALLAS. Mr. Boude- 
man stands at the head of the bar in Western 
Michigan, being a resident of Kalamazoo, 
where he has been in active practice for 28 
years. He was born at Danville, Montour 
county. Pa., January 20, 1846, and his first 
name indicates that his parents, William and 
Margaret G. Boudeman, were admirers of 
the then Vice-President of the United States, 
George M. Dallas, who was a Pennsylvanian. 
Mr. Boudeman's parents were pioneers of St. 
Joseph county, this state, coming from their 
Pennsylvania home in 1850, by the then 
approved mode of land conveyance, a covered 
wagon and team of horses, although in many 
cases other than the one under notice, a yoke 
of oxen served in place of the horses. They 
settled on a farm in St. Joseph County, where 
the son (an only child) was brought up. The 
son's early education was received in the pub- 
lic schools of Flowerfield and Three Kivers, in 
St. Joseph county. After teaching two win- 
ters in the primary schools of the county, he 
pursued a four years' course at Hillsdale Col- 
lege, and immediately after graduation, be- 
gan the study of law in the office of Severens 
& Burrows, of Kalamazoo, the former now 
Judge of the U. S. District Court for the 
Western Michigan District, and the latter, one 
of the United States Senators from Michigan. 
After being admitted to the bar, Mr. Boude- 
man became a partner with Judge Severens in 
practice and was thus connected for six years. 
Mr. Boudeman's standing in the legal pro- 
fession may be judged by the character of 
his early preceptors, and by the fact that he 
is now a non-resident lecturer in the Law De- 
partment of the State University. He has 
handled successfully many important cases in 
the Supreme Court and in the United States 
Courts, notably the case of the Duplex Print- 




DAXLAS BOUDEMAN. 

ing Press Company, recently decided by the 
U. S. Court of Appeals in favor of the com- 
pany for whom Mr. Boudeman was attorney. 
Mr. Boudeman is a Eepublican in politics, 
but is not and has never been an officeseeker, 
the only official position which he ever held, 
having been as a member of the Kalamazoo 
School Board. At the Republican Judicial 
Convention in 1899, Mr. Boudeman yielded 
to the earnest request of many attorneys iii 
southwestern Michigan, in permitting his 
name to be presented as a candidate for Judge 
of the Supreme Court. Judge Grant was, 
however, nominated, and Mr. Boudeman is 
still endeavoring to be a lawyer and to con- 
vince the courts, including Judge Grant, that 
his clients are always right, in which he is in 
most cases successful. Mr. Boudeman was 
married November 15, 18Y1, to Miss Mary 
J. Oernst of Mendon. Their children are 
Donald O., and Dallas, Jr., the former 20 
years of age and in college^ the latter 2 years 
old and at home. 






MEK OP PROGRESS. 




G. HENRY SHEARER. 



SHEARER, G. HENRY. Mr. Shearer 
is a native of Michigan, born in Detroit, Jan- 
uary 3, 1853. His father, Hon. James 
Shearer, was for many years and until his 
death on October 15, 1895, one of the most 
honored and trusted citizens of the state. He 
was born in Albany, N. Y., and came to De- 
troit in 1837, removing to Bay City in 1865. 
He was a contractor and builder while in 
Detroit. The mother of G. Henry Shearer, 
Margaret Hutchinson, daughter of Henry 
Hutchinson of Detroit, died in Bay City 
February 20, 1899. 

The subject of this sketch .received his 
Ohi'ly education in the public schools of De- 
troit and Bay City and in private and seledt 
schools, and thereafter until 1872 at the 
Pennsylvania MiKtary Academy aC Chester, 
Pa. In preparation for a life work he seems 
to have realized the fitness of beginning at 
the bottom. After le&yin/^ school he secured 
a position as common yard man in a lumber 
yard in Bay City, and gradually worked his 
way up until he became bookkeeper and con- 
fidential man. In 1877, in connection with 
hia father and brother, he branched out in the 



real estate business, they having heavy land 
investments in Michigan and other western 
states. 

Mr. Shearer honors the menory of his 
father by his faith and fidelity in public trusts. 
He has been a member of the Bay City Water 
Board for 18 years, and a member of the Fire 
Commission ever since its organization, and 
is president of both boards. He is secretary 
of the Elm Lawn Cemetery Company, a trus- 
tee of the First Presbyterian Church, and a 
stockholder and director in and vice-president 
of the Bay County Savings Bank. He is a 
32 degree Mason, a member of the Mystic 
Shrine, of the Maccabees, the Koyal Ar- 
canum, the Oddfellows, and of the Bay City 
Club (social). His landed interests are largely 
in connection with Shearer Bros., Colt, 
MulhoUand, and Bay county land companies 
(limited), all of Bay City. Miss Elva D. 
Culver, daughter of Descum Culver, a former 
lumberman of Bay City, became Mrs. Shearer 
August 23, 1876. They have no children. 
Mr. Shearer is a Eepublican in politics, has 
never sought any political office, although of- 
fered many difficult offices, and held many 
positions of trust in the party. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



iW 



CALLAGHAN, MILES MORRIS. The 

senior member of the firm of Callaghan & 
Richardson of Reed City, was born at Port- 
land, Mich., October 7, 1868. His paternal 
ancestry, as may be readily inferred from the 
name, was Irish. His grandfather, Patrick 
Callaghan, who was a lineal descendant of 
King Kollunkill, was an Irish leader, and 
was forced to leave Ireland in 1850, for po- 
litical reasons. His parents, Charles and 
Margurette (Morris) Callaghan, were resi- 
dents of Portland, but removed to Reed City 
when the son was 7 years of age. The son 
had the advantages of the local schools until 
the age of 15, when he became errand boy 
and delivery clerk for Stoddard Bros., a hard- 
ware firm at Reed City, beginning at a com- 
pensation of $10 per month. He was in the 
employ of this firm for 15 years, during the 
last seven of which he was buyer and manager. 
In 1897 he started in business for himself, as 
agent' for manufacturing firms, and in Feb- 
ruary, 1899, became a member of the firm 
of Callaghan & Richardson, retail dealers in 
paints, oils and wall paper. The firm are also 
manufacturers' agents in that part of the 
state, for handling pump and well supplies, 
heavy hardware, bicycles, sporting goods, etc. 

Mr. Callaghan is a Republican in politics 
and is the only one of that political faith in 
the Callaghan family. He has been president 
of the Young Men's Republican Club, of Reed 
City, for the past eight years, and is secretary 
of the Osceola Coimty Republican commit- 
tee. He holds the oflice of postmaster at Reed 
City, to which he was appointed by President 
McKinley June 15, 1897. He has congres- 
sional aspirations, being ambitious to repre- 
sent the Eleventh district in Congress. 

Mr. Callaghan's society connections and 




MILES MORRIS CALLAGHAN. 

services are extensive. He joined Osceola 
Court Independent Order of Foresters at Reed 
City in 1889, and in 1892 was appointed high 
messenger of the court. In 1896 he was 
elected vice-high chief ranger at Lansing, and 
in 1897, at Port Huron, was elected high chief 
ranger and re-elected in 1898 at the Detroit 
meeting of the High Court. When the statfe 
was divided by the erection of two High 
Courts in 1899, he was appointed high secre- 
tary of the High Court of the Western dis- 
trict, which position he still, holds. He is serv- 
ing his second term as chancellor commander 
of Osceola Lodge Knights of Pythias, of Reed 
City, and is a member of the Maccabees, Mod- 
em Woodmen of America, Royal OirclCj Mys- 
tic Circle, etc. 

Received the vote of his county for 17 bal- 
lots at the Republican congressional eottven- 
tion for the Eleventh district at Traverse Oity 
in July, 1900. 



MEN OF PKOGKESB. 




CAPT. HARRY HILL BANDHOLTZ. 

BANDHOLTZ/CAPT. HAKKY HILL. 
Among our young Michigan men of progress, 
Capt. Bandholtz must certainly take rank, as 
he is now introducing American progress into 
an extensive district in Cuba, in the native 
nomenclature, being styled ^^Khaki King of 
Sagua/' He was assigned to the command of 
this district of Sagua, comprising about 2,400 
square miles, with headquarters at the city 
of Sagua la Grande. His duties consist of 
building roads, enforcing sanitary regulations, 
inspecting hospitals, etc. — a position of respon- 
sibility certainly flattering to a young man 
in his thirty-sixth year. 

Capt. Bandholtz is part German, his 
father, Christopher Bandholtz, after serving 
in the Danish-German war, came to America 
from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, in 1847. 
His mother, whose maiden name was Eliza- 
beth Hill, is of Puritan descent, and traces 
her lineage back to the Perrys, represented by 
Commodore Perry of Lake Erie fame. The 
father and mother were married in Constan- 
tine, N. Y., where the present Capt. Band- 
holtz was born September 18, 1864. Grad- 
uating from the local schools there in 1881, 
he passed the next four years as a bookkeeper 
in Chicago, and in 1885 won his way to the 
West Point Military Academy upon a compet- 
itive examination at Kalamazoo. He grad- 
uated from West Point in 1890, and was com- 
missioned a second lieutenant and assigned to 



the Sixth United States Infantry; was mar- 
ried the same year to Miss May, daughter of 
L. E. Cleveland, of Chicago, and has one 
child, a son, Cleveland Nill Bandholtz. In 
1892 he was transferred to Fort Thomas, Ky., 
and a year later to Mt. Vernon Barracks, Ala., 
where he was attached to the Twelfth Infan- 
try, then on duty in charge of Appache pris- 
oners of war. He returned the same year to 
Fort Thomas, and in September, 1896, was 
assigned to duty as professor of military 
science and tactics at the Michigan Agricul- 
tural College, and while on duty there he was 
promoted to first lieutenant, and assigned to 
the Seventh Infantry. The war with Spain 
summoned him to active service, and on 
February 12, 1898, he joined his regiment at 
Tampa, Fla., and went to Cuba with Shafter's 
expedition. At El Caney, July 1, 1898, he 
was promoted for gallantry, and when Adju- 
tant Gisard was wounded, Bandholtz was ap- 
pointed adjutant, which position he held until 
he left Cuba. His superior officer at El Caney, 
in a letter to the governor of Michigan, speak- 
ing of his conduct at the battle, said, ^^His 
conduct was conspicuous for bravery and fear- 
lessness under heavy fire. He is an officer 
qualified to fill any position required of him.'^ 
Before going to Cuba, Lieut. Bandholtz was 
offered a major's commission in the Thirty- 
fifth Michigan Infantry, which he accepted 
after the surrender of Santiago. Arriving at 
Island Lake, Mich., August 6, 1898, he was 
mustered in as senior major of the regiment. 
When the regiment went south, Major Band- 
holtz was left at Island Lake as chief muster- 
ing officer for Michigan, and furloughed the 
Thirty-second, Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth 
regiments, later joining the Thirty-fifth at 
Camp Meade, Pa., proceeding thence with the 
regiment to Augusta, Ga. During his stay 
there. Major Bandholtz was provost marshal 
of the First Division, Second Army Corps. 
At the time of the mutiny of the Fifteenth 
Minnesota regiment, his prompt action pre- 
vented serious trouble. He has received many 
letters complimenting him on his work at 
Augusta. When his regiment was mustered 
out, Major Bandholtz went on recruiting duty 
at Grand Rapids, but was for a brief time pre- 
viously, in charge of the Michigan Military 
Academy at Orchard Lake. He was made 
captain in the Regular Army, November 15, 
1899. The captain is a member of the Masonic 
Fraternity, including the Knights Templar, 
Consistory and the Mystic Shrine, and belongs 
also to the Elks. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



-iiFS 



REED, GEORGE. George Reed, a prom- 
inent attorney of Mt. Pleasant, was born in 
Devonshire, England, January 19, 1852. Ilis 
father was a farmer and breeder of horses. He 
attended the government schools until thir- 
teen years old, when he became page and of- 
fice boy in a law office, acting in the ca; acity 
of janitor, caretaker and copyist. He re- 
mained in this position two years, during 
which he improved his time by reading Black- 
stone. .,At the age of fifteen his father died 
and he returned home. Circumstances were 
such that he could not resume his place in the 
law office and he was apprenticed to a saddler, 
working the first year without any compensa- 
tion and living Avith his mother. He worked 
at the trade of a saddler until his was twenty 
years old, when, having a friend who had 
done well in America, he was urged to come 
to the land of promise. He left England in 
November, 1873, and came to Michigan. His 
first experience in the State was at Hadley, 
Lapeer county, where he worked three months 
at his trade. The next two years he worked at 
Owosso and St. Louis. During the lumbering 
season of 1875-6 he was in the employ of 
Whitney & Stinchfield, who were lumbering 
in Montcalm county, working as harness- 
maker and repair man for their several log- 
ging camps, and during the summer months 
working on the drive and sorting gap. He 
then worked for Whitney & Remick, who 
operated in Isabella county, with whom Mr. 
Reed remained six years, acting as bookkeeper 
for their logging operations in Isabella county. 
In 1882 he started in business for himself, and 
opened a harness shop at Dushville, Isabella 
county, where he remained until 1890. While 
there he was elected township clerk and ap- 
pointed postmaster. At the !N^ovember elec- 
tion in 1890 he was elected county clerk of 
Isabella county, and moved to Mount Pleas- 
ant, the county seat. He was elected for a 
second term in 1892. While county clerk he 
resumed the study of law and was admitted to 
practice before Judge P. F. Dodds. After the 
expiration of his official term he entered upon 
the practice of law, and in the fall of 1896 was 




GEORGE REED. 

appointed by the Comptroller of the Currency 
as receiver of the First National Bank of 
Ithaca, which was capitalized at $50,000. He 
closed up the affairs of the bank in July, 1900, 
paying the depositors one hundred cents on 
the dollar and interest. In January, 1899, 
he was appointed receiver of the First Na- 
tional Bank of Mount Pleasant, which had 
gone into liquidation, and he is now engaged 
in settling with its depositors and creditors, 
having declared, so far, a 75 per cent, divi- 
dend. 

Mr. Reed is a man of affaiirs, being largely 
interested in real estate and a stockholder in 
the Union Telephone Company, which oper- 
ates in northern Michigan. He is interested 
in 1,400 acres of marl beds in Antrim, Char- 
levoix and Isabella counties, and a Portland 
cement company is being projected for their 
working. Mr. Reed is a Democrat in politico 
and has been a member of the State central 
committee and chairman for four years of the 
Isabella county committee. He is a member 
of the Masonic fraternity and of the Oddfel- 
lows, Elks, Maccabees and Modem Woodmen. 
Miss Elva Earl, of Leslie, Michigan, became 
Mrs. Reed in 1884. They have two children, 
George H. and Grover C, 



iim 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




PATRICK NOUD. 

NOUD, PATEICK. The biography of 
Patrick Noud of Manistee, the president of 
the State Lumber Company, and a prominent 
lumberman of northern Michigan, is one of 
more than ordinary interest. It is another 
striking illustration of what persevering 
energy and pluck will accomplish for the 
young man with but meager opportunities. 
Mr. Noud is of Irish lineage, but is a 
Canadian by birth, having been born in the 
town of Arnprior, Ontario, January 19, 184e5. 
His mother died when he was 9 years old, 
and his father three years later, from which 
time he lived at the home of his grandfather 
until he was 20 years of age. He went to 
work at the age of 13 as porter in a public 
house, near the home of his grandparents, at 
$4.00 per month, and later was errand boy for 
contractors on government works on Mada- 
waska Kiver. He welit into the lumber woods 
at the age of 17, making square timber. He 
remained as a support to his grandparents 
until 1865, and then started out for himself, 
coming to Michigan. Having favorable in- 
formation of northern Michigan he decided 
to try his fortune there, and had just money 
enough to pay his fare from Detroit to North- 



port. From there he worked his way on a 
sailing vessel, down Grand Traverse Bay to 
Elk Kapids. Not finding work there he 
walked tp a point on Manistee Kiver, 20 
miles above Manistee, where he worked until 
spring, when the contractors failed and did 
not pay their employes. He worked in the 
woods until 1867, and then engaged with K. 
G. Peters as superintendent of logging opera- 
tions, and was so employed until 1873. That 
fall he took a contract from E. G. Peters for 
logging 25,000,000 feet of pine timber, and 
borrowed $10,000 for outfit. He completed 
the contract in three and one-half years, with 
$16,000 to the good. He then resumed work 
for Peters as superintendent of logging opera- 
tions, serving in that capacity until 1881. 
In 1879 Mr. Noud associated himself with 
Thomas Kenney in the log booming business, 
in which they were very successful. He had 
also in 1879 become a partner with Davies, 
Blacker & Co., which, in 1887, became the 
State Lumber Company, of which Mr. Noud 
has been president from the first. At that 
time Mr. Davies sold out his interest to the 
Manistee Lumber Company, Avhich in turn 
sold out to the present company in 1898. Mr. 
Noud is also operating the J. C. Pomeroy 
Company of Manistee, manufacturers of lum- 
ber, and running a planing mill and retail 
yards. 

Mr. Noud is a Democrat and, while not ac- 
tively engaged in political affairs, he has 
given considerable time to matters of a public 
nature, having served his ward for several 
terms as alderman, and the city of Manistee 
for one year as mayor. He is a member of the 
Catholic Mutual Benevolent Association, of 
the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the 
Elks. Miss Susan A. McCurdy of Manistee, 
became Mrs. Noud in 1870. Their children 
are : Mary G., bookkeeper with the J. C. Pom- 
eroy Company; Thos. J., vice-president and 
cashier. State Lumber Company; John F., 
forenaan of Pomeroy's mill; Bernard D., in 
charge of J. C. Pomeroy retail yards; Maud 
A., in Manistee High School; Walter A. and 
Keuben P., in parochial school, Manistee. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



449 



MANN, ALEXANDER V. Mr. Mann 
is one of the pioneers in the lumber industry 
in Muskegon, being located there in 1857. 
He was born in Somerset county, N. J., July 
18, 1834, his father, John W. Mann, having 
been a lawyer. The son passed his early 
years up to the age of 21 on a farm, with but 
limited educational advantages, and in 1855 
came to Michigan and found employment in 
a dry goods store in Grand Rapids, going from 
there, two years later, to Muskegon. His first 
venture there was the purchase of a small 
tract of timber land on Cedar Creek, north of 
Muskegon, from which he cut the timber and 
hired it sawed at a local mill, marketing the 
product in Chicago. He continued to operate 
in this way for some 10 years, making a spe- 
cialty also of hewed timber for bridge and 
railroad work, for which a ready market was 
found in the growing states of the west. In 
1868 Mr. Mann formed a partnership with 
John W. Moon and Henry Bourdon, and the 
firm purchased a mill property at Lakeside 
(now a part of the city of Muskegon), which 
they continued to operate until the death of 
Bourdon in 1871, when the surviving part- 
ners formed the firm of A. V. Mann & Co. 
In 1872 the mill was burned, but was rebuilt 
on a larger scale with all modern appliance^ 
and was sold to the lumber firm of Hovey & 
McCracken in 1890. During Mr. Mann's 
career in the lumber business either alone or 
in connection with his business associates, he 
handled between 700,000,000 and 800,000,- 
000 feet of timber and lumber, giving his 
personal attention to the manufacture as well 
as to the financial details of the business. For • 
many years the firm carried on a car lot trade 
direct with retailers at interior points through- 
out the country, while the greater distribu- 
tion has been by lake craft, of which they 
own two steam barges and a number of sail- 
ing vessels. After closing out theil* sawmill 
in 1890, the firm made large purchases of 
pine and hardwood timber lands in Arkansas 
and are also interested in large tracts of red 
cedar and Douglas fir lands on the Columbia 
River in British Columbia. 

Mr. Mann early became interested in the 




ALEXANDER V. MANN. 

banking business at Muskegon, and in 1872 
he organized the National Lumberman's 
Bank of that city, of which he was for 10 
years vice-president, and has since and up to 
the present time been the presideint. He is 
also president of the Alaska Refrigerator 
Company, the Muskegon Manufacturing 
Company, the Stafl^ord Desk Company, all 
of Muskegon, and the Michigan Fire Ladder 
Company of Grand Rapids, Mich., and of the 
Muskegon Lumber Company of Little Rock, 
Ark., and is a director in 13 Business corpora- 
tions in Muskegon. 

Mr. Mann is a Democrat of the gold 
standard class, and was a delegate to the Na- 
tional Conventions in 1884 and 1888, the 
first at Chicago and the other at St. Louis. 
The only public ofiice he ever held was that 
of Supervisor for one year^ He is a member 
of the Masonic Fraternity, including the 
Knights Templar, Shrine and Consistory De- 
grees. Miss Sarah Rand of Muskegon, be- 
came Mrs. Mann in 1860. One son, William 
H., secretary to his father, and one daughter, 
Eliza B., at home, are the fruit of the mar- 
riage. 

As a lumberman, a banker and a public 
spirited citizen, Mr. Mann holds a deservedly 
high place, in the estimation of his immediate 
fellow citizens, as well as of his numerous 
correspondents elsewhere. 



4S0 



MEN OF PEOGKESS. 




SILAS WILLIAM GLASGOW. 

GLASGOW, SILAS WILLIAM. The 

name of Glasgow at once associates the bearer 
with the land of which the city of that name 
is the commercial capital. The grandparents 
of the present Mr. Glasgow were from Scot- 
land, but emigrated to the north of Ireland 
in 1750. His parents, William and Eliza 
Glasgow, were born in County Tyrone, Ire- 
land, coming from there to Auburn, N. Y., in 
1833, and from thence to Michigan in 1837, 
settling on a farm near Jonesville in Fayette 
township, Hillsdale county, where the son, 
Silas W., was born October 2, 1844. The 
parents both died in Jonesville, the mother 
February 4, 1887, and the father ]!^ovember 
25, 1897. The son attended the neighbor- 
hood school and the Jonesville schools, round- 
ing out his education at Hillsdale College. He 
then spent some five years in teaching in his 
own neighborhood, which he gave up in 1873 



to co-operate with his father in his farming 
interests. Mr. Glasgow was married Septem- 
ber 7, 1870, to Miss Emma L. Mitchell, 
daughter of James F. Mitchell of Jonesville, 
and with a growing family, he some years ago 
moved into that village in order that his chil- 
dren might have better school advantages than 
the country afforded, as well as for business 
reasons. Mr. Glasgow's father was a very 
extensive and successful farmer, and the son 
has proved no less so, combining also with 
farming at the present time, a real estate and 
money loaning business. Mr. Glasgow was 
elected President of the Village in March 
last (1900) and has been a member of the 
local school board for a number of years. He 
is an active Republican in politics and is pres- 
ident of the McKinley Club in the organiza- 
tion of w^hich he took an active part, a local 
political agency designed for work in the pres- 
idential campaign of 1900. He is a member 
of the Masonic Fraternity and the Knights 
of Pythias, and is a member and has been f o] 
several years an elder in the Presbyterian 
.Church. Mr. and Mrs. Glasgow have three 
children, Amarette, wife of Prof. W. D. 
Hill, Crystal Falls, Mich.; Eva L., wife of 
Benjamin F. Merchant of Jonesville, and 
William Mitcliell, 13 years old, at home. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Glasgow take great inter- 
est in religious work, Mrs. G. being at the pres- 
ent time (as w^ell as for some years past), 
president of both the Missionary Society and 
the Ladies' Aid Society. She also taught in 
the Jonesville schools in 1867, '68 and '69. 
Her family are of English origin, coming 
first from England to Vermont, thence to 
Erie County, N. Y., and to Jonesville in 1861, 
where her father died January 9, 1877. Her 
mother still lives in Jonesville. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



45i 



FOKSYTHE, LEE KEEN". There is an 
expression sometimes heard in political circles 
when choosing candidates for public office, 
^^Give the young men a chance." But if it be 
wise to give the young men a chance in politi- 
cal life, the young men are not always slow 
to make their own way in the business world, 
as shown in the case of the gentleman whose 
name heads this sketch, who has the honor 
of having been the father of an important 
industry in Michigan. Mr. Forsythe is a 
native Pennsylvanian, having been born at 
Pittsburg April 1, 1869, his father, Wm. 
Forsythe, having been a f oundryman in Pitts- 
burg. His mother, Emma Faulkner, was of 
Erie, Pa. The father having died when the 
son was but 3 years of age, the latter came 
to Detroit, and under the care of an uncle 
and aunt, attended the public schools there 
until the age of 14. He then went to White 
Sulphur Springs in Montana, working there 
in the mines during the summer months, in 
order to procure means to pay for a special 
course in chemistry during winters at the In- 
diana State University, at Bloomington, Ind., 
from which he graduated in 1889. He then 
opened an office as a .chemical assayist at 
White Sulphur Springs, remaining there one 
year. In 1890 he entered the employ of the 
Yellowstone Mining Company, of Castle, 
Mont., as assayist, remaining with them one 
year. He then went to I^iehart, Mont., wher< 
he opened an office for himself doing special 
assay work for miners from all parts of the 
state. In 1894 he returned to Michigan on 
the way to Mexico, in behalf of a company, of 
which the Hon. Wm. C. Maybury, at preseni: 
Mayor of Detroit, was one of the chief owners, 
to make a report upon a mining venture there 
in which they were interested. While in 
Mexico his stepfather in Battle Creek died, 
necessitating his return to Michigan. Going 
to Battle Creek he became connected vdth the 
Michigan Foundry Company, as his step- 
father left an interest at death, with which 
concern he remained until it was absorbed by 
the Advance Thresher Company in 1896. He 




LEE KERN FORSYTHE. 



then conceived the idea of manufacturing 
cement, and organized and incorporated a 
company under the name of the Peerless Port- 
land Cement Company, of which he was sec- 
retary-treasurer and manager. The company 
built a plant at Union City with a capacity 
of 20 barrels per day, employing eight men, 
Avhich gradually increased to a daily output 
of 1,200 barrels, with a payroll of about 200 
men. This plant is the pioneer cement com- 
pany of Michigan. Mr. Forsythe never saw 
a cement factory previous to this venture, but 
being an expert chemist, he made the venture 
a success from the start,, and from this has 
grown the cement industry of the state. Mr. 
Forsythe closed his connection with the com- 
pany in 1899, previous to which it had been 
capitalized at $250,000. Eetuming to Battle 
Creek in 1899, he organized the Durable 
Cement Post Company at that place, of which 
he is at present the manager. Mr. Forsythe 
is a member of the Masonic Fraternity. Miss 
Lulu A. ITorth, daughter of E. L. ITorth, of 
Battle Creek, became Mrs. Forsythe in 1896. 
They have one daughter, Helen Dorothy. 



152 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




SUMNER O. BUSH. 

BUSH, SUMNER O. Like many an- 
other representative Michigan man, Mr. Bush 
is a graduate from the farm. Born near 
Sandstone in Jackson county, May 7, 1847, 
his parents moved into Calhoun county seven 
years later. From the farm and local schools, 
he graduated from the scientific course at 
Olivet College in 1870. Still adhering to the 
farm, his first outside business venture was in 
live stock. With small savings, supplemented 
by a loan, he bought his first load of cattle 
when 23 years old. He was subsequently 
associated with Charles Eoe of Detroit in buy- 
ing stock for the Eastern market. He further 
pursued the live stock business on his own 
account, and also engaged in buying wool 
and fruit, while still working the farm. En- 
gaged also in buying and fattening sheep for 
the market, some winters feeding over 1,000 
sheep. 

In 1889 Mr. Bush's business reputation had 
become such that he was made a director and 
vice-president of the Advance Thresher Com- 
pany, and he removed to Battle Creek. A 
little later the duties of general manager were 
added to those of vice-president. The Ad- 
vance Thresher Company is one of the newer 



plants for the manufacture of threshers and 
engines, but under judicious management 
now stands in the front rank. The first year 
Mr. Bush was connected with the company 
they turned out only 45 machines. The 
product in 1899 represented a cash value of 
over $2,000,000. It is one of the leading 
establishments in Battle Creek and is a credit 
to that enterprising and go ahead central 
city, and to the State of Michigan. 

Mr. Bush has other and varied business in- 
terests. He is owner and manager of a farm 
of 417 acres, which is made a profit-paying 
investment. He is a director in and vice- 
president of the Peerless Portland Cement 
Company of Union City, and an equal part- 
ner in the Howes & Bush Co., who do an ex- 
tensive business in fruit, beans, coal, etc. He 
was president of the Board of Public Works 
of Battle Creek for six years, and was an ac- 
tive agent in developing the sewer system and 
extending the water works system of the city. 
He has been a trustee of Olivet College for 
12 years and has been identified with the 
growth and improvement of that institution, 
which, within the past few years, has made 
such marked progress. 

Mr. Bush may be characterized in modern 
phrase, as a pusher in whatever he under- 
takes, but with a judicious conservatism in his 
undertakings. He does not rush blindly into 
schemes, but having once determined upon 
an enterprise, he may be relied upon to work 
it for all it is worth. He is of an even balance 
in temperament that assures success in life. 
He is of pleasing personality, and, while con- 
sidering a proposal with candor, he can de- 
cline it without offense. He was an active 
member of the State Agricultural Society 
for a number of years, but has no special sec- 
retarial connections. He is Kepublican in 
politics. His father was Frederick E. Bush, 
and his mother Cynthia Willard, a direct de- 
scendant of the Wellard family of Vermont. 
Miss Vernellie Daley, daughter of Elijah 
Daley of LeKoy, Calhoun county, and a 
graduate of Mt. Holyoke Seminary, Kalama- • 
zoo, became Mrs. Bush in 1877. They have 
three children: Vernon E., and Charles S., 
students of the University of Michigan, the 
former having graduated from the literary 
department in 1900, and Bertha, attending 
the Battle Creek High School. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



453 



WOLCOTT, FEANK TUKNEE. Frank 
T. Wolcott, of Port Huron, the present Judge 
of Probate of St. Clair county, was born at 
Perry, N. Y., January 1, 1861. Through his 
parents, Oscar M. and Emily (Thompson) 
Wolcott, he is connected with an ancestry 
prominently associated with the colonial his- 
tory of Maine. His father was a Methodist 
minister and served four years in a New York 
regiment in the war of the rebellion. Mr. 
Wolcott graduated from the academy at 
Perry, N. Y., in 1880, and early in 1881 went 
to Buffalo and spent some time in the office of 
an uncle, who was a lawyer there, in which 
experience he contracted an appetite for legal 
study. He came to Port Huron in the fall of 
1881 and began the systematic study of law in 
the office of Stevens & Thomas, of that place, 
and applying himself diligently to his studies 
was admitted to the bar before Judge H. W. 
Stevens July 18, 1882. He at once opened an 
office and as a young attorney, practicing alone, 
was favored with a gratifying clientage for 
four years. In 1886 he became a member of 
the law firm of Atkinson, Vance & Wolcott 
(O'Brien J. Atkinson and S. W. Vance). This 
connection continued until Mr. Vance was 
elected Circuit Judge in 1892, when the firm 
became Atkinson & Wolcott. Mr. Wolcott's 
partnership relations were a second time in- 
cterrupted by a similar cause, when in June, 
1899, Mr. Atkinson was appointed to a circuit 
judgeship, the Legislature of that year having 
provided for an additional judge for the cir- 
cuit. George G. Moore then became asso- 
ciated with Mr. Wolcott under the firm name 
of Wolcott & Moore, which is the present - 
style of the firm. 




FRANK TURNER WOLCOTT. 

Being but a young man Mr. Wolcott has 
his life's history yet to make, but so far as 
official service is concerned he has already 
made a worthy commencement. He served 
two terms as City Attorney of Port Huron 
and had a like service (four years) as Circuit 
Court Commissioner. In 1896 he was elected 
to the responsible position of Judge of Pro- 
bate. He is a Kepublican in politics and was 
for six years, preceding the opening of the 
campaign of 1900, chairman of the congres- 
sional district committee of the seventh dis- 
trict. He is local attorney for the Chicago & 
Grand Trunk and the Flint & Pere Marquette 
railways. His society connections are Knights 
of Pythias, Maccabees and I. O. F. Miss 
Francis H. Holbert, daughter of G. H. Hol- 
bert, of Elmira, N. Y., became Mrs. Wolcott 
at St. Clair, Feb. 23, 1896. 






MEN OF PBOGKESS. 




THOMAS MUNROE. 

MUNEOE, THOMAS. Mr. Munroc is a 
leading business man and manufacturer of 
Muskegon. He is the oldest of a family of six 
children born to Dr. Thomas and Mrs. Annis 
(Hinman) Munroe. Dr. Munroe was a native 
of Baltimore, Md., and settled in Kushville, 
Schuyler county, Hlinois, in 1837, where the 
son Thomas was born October 26, 1844. Mrs. 
Munroe, mother of Thomas, was a native of 
Herkimer county, N. Y., and a daughter of 
Benjamin Hinman, who held a major's com- 
mission in the colonial army in the AVar of the 
Revolution. Mrs. Munroe is one of the real 
Daughters of the American Eevolution, and is 
still living at Rushville, 111., at the age of 85 
years. The son Thomas attended the district 
schools ks a boy, and at the age of eighteen 
entered the Hlinois Wesleyan Seminary at 
Bloomington, where he remained about two 
years. Subsequently he spent six years as a 
clerk in a general store at Eushville, and in 
1870 he resigned that position and came to 
Muskegon, where he has since continued to 
reside. He immediately entered the employ of 
L. G-. Mason & Co., with whom he remained 



eight years. Eor a time he had charge of the 
books and other office work and subsequently 
was manager of the outside work. On the or- 
ganization of the Thayer Lumber Company in 
1878 Mr. Munroe was appointed superinten- 
dent of its workings and business, which have 
since been under his management. The com- 
pany is operating two saw mills, with a yearly 
output of about fifty million feet of lumber, 
and employing over three hundred men. Their 
product is handled largely by rail and finds a 
market chiefly in the east and southeast. The 
company was incorporated in 1880, Mr. Mun- 
roe having been superintendent from the first, 
and now combined the double function of su- 
perintendent, secretary and treasurer. In ad- 
dition to the mills the company has over seven 
hundred feet of lake frontage as part of its 
plant in Muskegon, and is also a large holder 
of pine lands in Kalkaska and Missaukee 
counties. . 

Mr. Munroe is president of the Common- 
wealth Lumber Company of Frazee, Minn., of 
the Indiana Box Company, of Anderson, Ind., 
is vice-president of the Hackley National Bank 
of Muskegon, and a director in the Muskegon 
Savings Bank. He is a Eepublican in politics, 
but has never held political ofiice, devoting his 
entire time to his numerous business interests. 
The only official position ever held by him was 
as a member of the local school board. 

Mr. Munroe is prominently associated with 
the Masonic fraternity, being a Past Master of 
Lovel Moore Lodge 182, of Muskegon, Past 
High Priest of Muskegon Chapter Eoyal Arch 
Masons, Past Eminent Commander of Muske- 
gon Commandery 47, Knights Templar, first 
Lieutenant Commander of Dewitt Clinton 
Consistory of Grand Eapids, and became a 
33 Degree Mason in 1898. Mr. Munroe was 
married June 19, 1872, to Miss Katherine A. 
Jones, daughter of John E. Jones, of Eemsen, 
N". Y., who as a resident of Muskegon has en- 
deared herself to its people by her many es- 
timable qualities and as an active participant 
in church and other charitable work. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



4m 



CHASE, CHARLES HEl^RY. Mr. 

Chase was born at Cato, N. Y., Dec. 19, 1852. 
From New York his parents, Daniel B. and 
Catherine (Switzer) Chase, moved in 1862 to 
Michigan, settling on a farm near the village 
of Maple Rapids, in Clinton county. The 
Chases are direct descendants of William 
Chase, who came from England with Gover- 
nor Winthrop in 1630. Charles Henry Chase 
was one of a family of eight children. He had 
the advantages of the district schools until he 
was fifteen, followed by a couple of terms at 
the Maple Rapids Union school. At the age of 
sixteen he secured a third grade teacher's cer- 
tificate and began teaching school, his first 
engagement paying him one hundred dollars 
for one hundred days school in Lebanon, Clin- 
ton county. He began a preparatory course 
for college, working at home on the farm dur- 
ing vacations, and entered Albion College in 
February of 18 Y5, graduating therefrom in 
1878, with the degree of Ph. B. During his 
vacations, while at Albion College, he acted as 
tutor and as assistant to Prof. Geo. B. Merri- 
man, who was employed by the United States 
government to compute the positions of the 
standard stars for the Nautical Almanac, and 
in this service he earned means to pay his way 
through college. After leaving Albion he be- 
came assistant principal of the St. Johns High 
School, year 1878-9. The next year he was 
principal of the Zeeland public school, and 
during 1881, 1882 and 1883 was principal of 
the high school at Lansing, and the next two 
years was in charge of the public schools at 
Leslie. He then abandoned pedagogy for the 
road, and during four years was traveling sales- 
man in the western states, the last year for the 
Nonotuck Silk Company. Quitting the road, 
he, with his brother, purchased the Herald 
newspaper at Anderson, Ind., which they pub- 
lished in 1889-90 during the natural gas boom. 
They then sold out and purchased from Robert 
Smith, in June, 1890, -the Gratiot (Mich.) 
County Journal. In 1893 three of the Gratiot 
county papers (the Gratiot County Journal, 
Alma Record and St. Louis Republican 




CHARLES HENRY CHASE. 

Leader) were combined under one manage- 
ment and under the name of the Gratiot 
County Printing Company, and as secretary 
and treasurer of this company, Mr. Chase 
lived at St. Louis from 1893 until 1896, when 
the corporation was dissolved. He continued 
to manage the Gratiot County Journal until 
1896, still retaining his connection with it in 
company with his brother, A. E. Chase. The 
Journal was started in 1856 as the Gratiot 
County News, and re-named the Journal in 
1866. 

Mr. Chase is a well-known writer on econ- 
omic questions and is author of the work, "Ele- 
mentary Principles of Economics,^' which is 
recognized as a standard work in the colleges 
and schools of the country. He was a Repub- 
lican until after the St. Louis (Mo.) conven- 
tion in 1896, when he became known as a sil- 
ver Republican. He was that year nominated 
on the combination ticket for Judge of Pro- 
bate, and was elected by 395 majority. He is 
a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the 
Order of Oddfellows, of the Royal Arcanum 
and of the Delta Tau Delta (literary). Miss 
Mary E. Church, daughter of M. M. Churchy 
of Albion, became Mrs. Chase in 1879i 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




COL. FRANK D WIGHT BALDWIN. 

BALDWIN, COL. FEANK DWIGHT. 
Col. Baldwin is a representative type of Michi- 
gan citizen soldiery. His father, Francis L. 
D. Baldwin, was a farmer, descended from 
Massachusetts and Connecticut stock. His 
mother, Betsey Richards, was a native of the 
state of 'New York. The parents were early 
residents of Manchester, Mich., where Frank 
D. was born June 26, 1842, they removing to 
^Ottawa township, St. Joseph county, while 
the son was a small child. He attended the 
local school until fourteen years old, the last 
three years only during the winter months. 
In 1856 the family removed to Oonstantine, 
where the son had the advantage of the graded 
school, graduating from the High School in 

1860. He had just begun a preparatory course 
when the capture of Fort Sumpter sounded 
the key note of the great Civil War. He at 
once began organizing a company, which was 
first mustered into the service as the Chandler 
Horse Guards, in which he held the commis- 
sion of second lieutenant. In November, 

1861, this company was merged with the 
Nineteenth Michigan Infantry, Lieutenant 
Baldwin taking rank as first lieutenant of 
Company B, in which he served until the close 



. of the war, holding, when mustered out, the 
rank of captain, and has been commissioned 
as lieutenant-colonel, though not sworn as 
such. During his service he participated in 
the battles of Thompson's Station, Resaca, 
Cassville, Atlanta and during Sherman's 
march to the sea, and was wounded once. He 
resumed his studies at Constantino after the 
war was over, and entered Hillsdale College, 
but was called therefrom in February, 1866, 
to accept a lieutenancy in the Nineteenth reg- 
, ular infantry, being promoted from second to 
first lieutenant, transferred to Thirty-Seventh 
Infantry Sept. 21, 1866 and to the Fifth In- 
fantry May 19, 1869, promoted to the rank of 
captain March 20, 1879. He was breveted 
major Feb. 27, 1890, for gallant services in 
actions against the Indians, on the Salt Fork 
of the Red River, Texas, Aug. 30, 1874, on 
McLellan's Creek, Texas, Nov. 8, 1874, for 
gallant and successful attack on Sitting Bull's 
camp of Indians on Red Water River, Mont., 
Dec. 18, 1876, and conspicuous gallantry in 
action against Indians at Wolf Mountain, 
Mont., Jan. 8, 1877. He was commissioned 
major of the Fifth Infantry April 28rd, 1898, 
and transferred to the Third Infantry Nov. 3, 
1899. He was commissioned lieutenant-col- 
onel and inspector-general of volunteers, serv- 
ing from May 9, 1898, to May 12, 1899, and 
on Dec. 18, 1899, was made lieutenant-colonel 
of the Third Regular Infantry, and is now 
serving as such in the Philippines. 

Col. Baldwin has twice been voted medals 
of honor by Congress : for distinguished brav- 
ery at the Battle of Peach Tree Creek, Ga., 
July 20, 1864, and for most distinguished 
gallantry in action against hostile Indians near 
McLellan's Creek, Texas, Nov. 8, 1874, attack- 
ing them with two companies, forcing them 
from their strong position, and pursuing them 
until they were utterly routed. Most of the 
facts of Col. Baldwin's military record above 
are kindly supplied by L. R. Hammersly of 
New York, publisher of the TJ. S. Army List, 
soon to be issued. 

Col. Baldwin is a close friend of Maj.-Gen. 
Miles. His society connections are Loyal Le- 
gion, Society of Indian Wars, G. A. R. and 
Masonic. He was married Jan. 10, 1867, to 
Miss Alice Blackwood, daughter of Dr. C. D. 
Blackwood, of Northville. They have one 
daughter, Juniata, wife of A. C. G. Williams- 
Foote, First Lieutenant Thirty-second TJ. S. 
Infantry, now on duty in the Philippines. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



BUCKLEY, EDWARD. Edward Buck^ 
ley, president of the Buckley & Douglas Lum- 
ber Company, of Manistee. He is of English 
ancestry of the yeomanry class, his father own- 
ing and tilling his own land. He was born at 
Biddleford, Devonshire, August 8, 1842. In 
1847 his parents, Robert and Mary (Selden) 
Buckley, moved to Montreal, where the 
father died, leaving two children, Edward, and 
a daughter, two years his junior. Shortly 
after the death of his father, Edward's mother 
went with her two children to Toronto, where 
the son received his first schdol training. 
When he was twelve years old he began work 
on a farm for his board and clothing, where he 
remained three years. In 1855 the mother, 
with her family, removed to Cheboygan, Wis., 
where the son learned the trade of a tinsmith. 
Later, when the family moved to Milwaukee, 
he started out for himself. He was not con- 
fined to one line, however, but had worked at 
a variety of vocations for a young man, in- 
cluding one season on a river steamer, plying 
between St. Paul, Minn., and St. Louis, Mo. 
While in Milwaukee he realized the import- 
ance of a better educational equipment and 
took a six months' course in a commercial 
college, attending both day and evening ses- 
sions as a necessary measure of financial econ- 
omy. On August 5, 1862, he enlisted in the 
Twenty-fourth Wisconsin Infantry, with 
which he joined BuelPs Army of the Cum- 
berland, participating in the battles of Perry- 
ville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission 
Ridge and all of the battles of the Atlanta 
campaign. Upon his discharge in August, 
1865, Mr. Buckley returned to Milwaukee, 
where he entered the employ of the Chicago, 
Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, in 
the capacity of a tinsmith. In 1867 he came 
to Manistee and took charge of a tinshop for a 
local hardware firm, and six months later 
opened a hardware and tinsmith business for 
himself under the name of Edward Buckley 
& Co., having H. V. Marchant, of Milwaukee, 
as his business associate. In 1874 he closed 
out his hardware business and together with 
Mr. Ruggles carried on a general land business 




EDWARD BUCKLEY. 

for several years. In 1880 Mr. Buckley en- 
tered into a partnership with William Doug- 
las for the purpose of carrying on a logging 
and lumber manufacturing business, in which 
they were very successful, six years later pur- 
chasing the Ruddock, Nuttal & Co. timber 
lands and mill property, and beginning the 
extensive improvements which have made 
their plant one of the most complete of its 
kind in the Northwest. Mr. Buckley is a 
member of the Republican party and is one 
of the candidates on the Republican electoral 
ticket at the pending election (1900). He is 
president and treasurer of the Buckley &- 
Douglas Lumber Company and president and 
general manager of the Manistee & JSTorth- 
eastern Railroad Co., running between Manis- 
tee and Traverse City. He is a 32nd degree 
Mason and has held all of the important offi- 
ces of the several lodges to which he belongs, 
including the office of Eminent Commander of 
Manistee Commandery, No. 32 Knights 
Templar. He is also a member of ^Saladin 
Temple of Grand Rapids and of the Grand 
Rapids Consistory. In 1869 Mr. Buckley was 
married to Miss Mary D. Ruggles, who died in 
1886. In 1894 he was united in marri^e to 
Miss Jonnie Sloan, daughter of Hon. John 
Sloan, of Savannah, Georgia, by whom he has 
one daughter. 



MEK OF PROGEE88. 




EUGENE T. SAWYER. 

SAWYEE, EUGENE T. The oldest law 
practitioner in the county of Wexford bears 
the well-known name foregoing. He was 
born at Grand Rapids, May 8, 1848, his father, 
James Sawyer, having come from England in 
1834 and located at Grand Rapids. Under 
contract the father removed the stumps from 
what is now the principal street of the second 
city, and later was connected with the first 
company that opened the plaster beds at Grand 
Rapids, and for years burned the stucco that 
supplied all of western Michigan. The mother 
of the present Mr. Sawyer was Susan C. Mar- 
din, of a French Huguenot family, that came 
to the French settlement at Grand Rapids in 
1838. Mr. Sawyer's primary education was 
received in the neighborhood schools and in 
the Grand Rapids high school, from the latter 
of which he graduated in 1868. His first re- 
sources were secured by work as. a farm hand 
and teaching a district school, he having been 
employed as a teacher near Grand Rapids for 
two years, his ambition having been to save 
money enough to defray his expenses in a col- 
lege course. He entered the law department 
of the University in the fall of 1870 and 
graduated therefrom in 1873. He borrowed 



$200 to complete his course, following which 
he located at Cadillac. Having taken a com- 
mercial course at Grand Rapids in 1 869 he im- 
proved the knowledge there acquired by keep- 
ing books for a couple of business firms in 
Cadillac to meet his current expenses. He 
opened a law office in the same building with 
the ^^Cadillac ISTews,'^ and for two years acted 
as reporter, solicitor and collector for the pa- 
per, attending to his bookkeeping at night, 
while building up a law practice. At the end 
of the second year he was elected Justice of the 
Peace, which gave him a start and an extended 
acquaintance. He was a law partner with S. 
S. Faliass for two years, and in 1878 became 
associated with his present partner, James R. 
Bishop. 

Mr. Sawyer has contributed very largely to 
the material development of the city of Cadil- 
lac. He was for years secretary of the Cadil- 
lac Improvement Board, which was organized 
to promote the manufacturing interests of the 
city, and was the means of securing several 
new industries, notably the Cadillac Handle 
Company, Cadillac Stave & Heading Com- 
pany and the C. M. Oviatt Manufacturing 
Company, besides many smaller concerns. He 
was one of the promoters of the western divis- 
ion of the now Toledo & Ann Arbor railroad, 
and was for years its local attorney. To Mr. 
Sawyer is given the credit of having secured 
for Cadillac its handsome brick and stone 
school buildings. A majority of the school 
board favored wooden buildings, but during 
an all night session, closing at 4 o'clock in the 
morning, Mr. Sawyer converted them to the 
solid plan. 

Politically, Mr. Sawyer is an independent, 
not affiliating with any party and never having 
voted a straight party ticket. Because of this 
he has held public office very little, except 
where politics did not enter. He was eight 
years a member of the local school board, was 
for four years its president and two years its 
secretary, serving one year in the double capa- 
city. Mr. Sawyer and his family are affiliated 
with the Congregational church. Miss Kate 
M. Sipley, daughter of John F. Sipley, of 
Ann Arbor, became Mrs. Sawyer in 1875. 
Of the two daughters, Christobel is a graduate 
of the University and a teacher in the Cadil- 
lac high school, and Olive is a student at the 
University. 



HISTOKIOAL SKETCHES. 



45^ 



APLEST, HENEY H. One of the most 
popular of Michigan's sons, wherever he is 
known, is Henry H. Aplin, of West Bay City. 
His parents, Thomas and Elvira (Metcalf) 
Aplin, came to Michigan in 1835, settling in 
Shetford township, Genesee county, where 
Henry H. was born April 15, 1841, the fam- 
ily removing to Flint in 1848. The son's edu- 
cation was received in the public schools of 
Flint. The family returned to the farm in 
1856, where the son remained until the out- 
break of the Civil War, when he enlisted on 
July 3, 1861, in Company C, Sixteenth Mich- 
igan Infantry, which was attached to the First 
Division, Third Brigade, Fifth Army Corps, 
Army of the Potomac, serving until the close 
of the war and leaving the service July 16, 
1865, with the rank of second lieutenant. Ke- 
turning to Michigan, he engaged in mercantile 
business at Wenona, now West Bay City, 
where he has since resided. He was postmas- 
ter at West Bay City from J^ovember, 1869, 
to June, 1886, and was again appointed to the 
same office Oct. 1, 1898. At the November 
election in 1886 he was elected Auditor Gen- 
eral of the State. His personal popularity is 
shown by his having led his party ticket (the 
Kepublican) by over 10,000 votes in the State 
and nearly 2,000 in his own county. He was 
re-elected to the same office in 1888. After 
the expiration of his term he, with others, un- 
dertook the construction of a system of elec- 
tric street railways in West Bay City, of which 
he was the general manager until he closed 
out his interest in the enterprise in 1891. In 
1894 Mr. Aplin was elected to the lower house 
of the State Legislature from the second dis- 
trict of Bay county, serving during the ses- 
sion of 1895. He has represented his party 
in local and state convention for many years 
and was a delegate to the national convention 
that nominated Blaine and Logan in 1884. 




HENRY H. ALPIN. 



He was a member of the Republican state 
central committee 1888-92 and has been chair- 
man of every local committee, congressional, 
senatorial, representative, county, township 
and ward. The Republicans have been suc- 
cessful only when he was at the helm, and he 
never lost but one (county) campaign. He 
served as Township Clerk and Township 
Treasurer, each three years, and was never 
defeated but once, when he was a candidate 
for Village Trustee. 

On his father's side Mr. Aplin is of Scotch 
descent. He is a member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity, of the Knights of Pythias, the Na- 
tional Union, the Royal Arcanum, the Order 
of Foresters, and the G. A. R., and has been 
commander of Ralph Cummings Post of West 
Bay City several terms. Mr. Aplin was mar- 
ried at Maumee City, Ohio, in 1879, to Miss 
Frances L. Patchen, daughter of Malcolm B» 
Patchen, of Maumee City. Their one daugh- 
ter, Daisy A., is the wife of Charles B. Coniej 
a traveling salesman of Chicago. 



4^ 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




BRAKIE J. ORR. 

ORR, BRAKIE J. Mr. Orr was born May 
15, 1860, and received his education at the 
public schools of Saginaw. After leaving 
school he learned the trade of a stone cutter 
with Woodruff & Caswell, of Saginaw, after 
which he spent about two and one-half years 
in various places in the United States and 
Canada, improving himself in his trade. Re- 
turning to Saginaw, he entered the employ of 
Woodruff & Caswell as a traveling salesman, 
and while thus employed came into competi- 
tion with Mr. Edwin Pry or, since deceased, of 
the Bay City Stone Co. Mr. Pryor was so 
favorably impressed with his manner and style 
of doing business that he offered him the posi- 
tion of manager of the marble and granite de- 
partment of the Bay City Stone Co., which 
he accepted, and where he remained until he 
laid down the mallet and chisel to take up the 
practice of law. The law was the profession 
to which Mr. Orr aspired, and his hope was to 
earn sufficient money at his trade to enable him 
to pursue his law studies without interruption. 
Shortly after taking up his residence in Bay 
City, he met with the young lady (Miss 
Euphemia Augusta Calvin) who is now his 



wife, to whom he was married in 1883. A 
fast increasing family did not bring his cher- 
ished plans any nearer; he therefore deter- 
mined to pursue his studies while working at 
his trade. Under the tutelage of Curtis E. 
Pierce, of Bay City^ he pursued the study of 
law for several years, and was admitted to 
practice in March, 1894. On the same day of 
his admission he was nominated for justice of 
the peace, on the Republican ticket, and was 
elected by 329 majority, the Democratic ma- 
jority the year before having ranged from 200 
to 600. While filling this position he was ten- 
dered and accepted the position of assistant 
prosecuting attorney, in which capacity he 
made the remarkable record of fifty-two con- 
victions in one term of court, surprising not 
only the members of the bar, but the most san- 
guine of his friends. In April, 1897, Mr. 
Orr's name was presented to the common coun- 
cil for the appointment of city attorney, but 
the Democratic candidate was successful. Two 
years later he received the entire twenty-two 
votes of the council for the same position 
(which he now occupies), although several 
prominent Republican attorneys of the city 
were aspirants for the place. As a lawyer he 
is careful, painstaking and thorough, fair and 
courteous to his opponents, almost disregard- 
ing technicalities, but taking advantage of 
everything of merit advantageous to his 
clients. His rapid advancement is but a just 
tribute to his studiousness and energy. This 
was said of him by a gentleman of his city, 
^^Why shouldn't he succeed? He not only 
hasn't an enemy in the world, but everybody is 
his friend ; he's a gentleman at all times, to all 
persons, under all circumstances, and is the 
same common everyday Brake now that he 
was when a stonecutter. 

Mr. Orr is well known throughout the 
United States and Canada from his contribu- 
tions to trade journals. He is fair and just in 
his treatment of labor questions, his sympa- 
thies being with labor and labor organizations, 
and believes that organization and education 
are the only solutions to the many labor prob- 
lems. In politics he has always been a Repub- 
lican. He is a member of the Oddfellows, 
Masons, Maccabees and Modern Woodmen. 
On his father's side of the house Mr. Orr is 
descended from the Irish of County Cavan, 
Ireland, there being among his ancestors such 
names as Cavendish, Breakey and Courtenay. 
His mother's people are Dutch Quakers. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



40 



BKOWN, MICHAEL. Many a man 
prominent in civil life at the present day re- 
ceived his baptism in the Civil War, and Judge 
Michael Brown, of Big Eapids, is one of them. 
The Brown family, of which he is a represen- 
tative, came from the Netherlands and were 
sailors by profession. The parents of Judge 
Brown were farmers in Pulaski county, In- 
diana, where the son was born April 20th, 
1841. His earlier years were passed in con- 
nection with home duties and the district 
school. At the age of seventeen he went to 
Logansport, twenty-four miles from the home 
of his parents, to attend the county seminary 
there. He boarded himself, his parents bring- 
ing him supplies every second week, but when 
the roads were bad he made the trip home and 
back on foot, to procure the necessary supplies. 
In the fall of 1859 he entered Franklin Col- 
lege at Franklin, Ind., boarding himself as be- 
fore, where he remained until the first of the 
year 1860, when he entered Wabash College at 
Crawfordsville, from which in May, 1862, he 
enlisted as a private in Company B, Second 
Indiana Cavalry, for service in the Civil War 
and remained in the service until the close of 
the war in 1865. His service in the army 
entitled him to promotion, which was offered 
him, but he declined, preferring to do his duty 
in the ranks till the end. He was made pris- 
oner during the advance on Atlanta, May 9, 
1864, was sent to Andersonville, where he was 
confined until October 16, when he was sent to 
Florence, Alabama, and paroled, that is, the 
ninety-four pounds of him that remained. He 
was furloughed, but returned to the service as 
soon as he was able to do so. Returning home 
after the close of the war, the young soldier 
took a course in a business college at Chicago, 
and in the fall of 1866 entered the University 
of Michigan, taking a mixed law and literary 
course, and graduated from the law depart- 
ment in March, 1868. He located in Big Rap- 
ids, then an isolated lumber town forty miles 
from any railroad, and hung out his sign as 
attorney at law. Clients were slow in coming 
and he became county superintendent of 
schools for two years, and also worked as sup- 




MICHAEL BROWN. 

ply clerk in a lumber office, packing supplies 
to be sent to the camps. As the beginning of 
the second year the law business began to 
brighten up, since which time Judge Brown 
has had no scarcity of clients. He was elected 
mayor of Big Rapids in 1873 and served one 
term. In 1876 he was appointed Circuit 
Judge by the Governor in case of a vacancy, to 
which office he was elected at the next general 
election. His judicial service was highly satis- 
factory, but he resigned in 1881, preferring 
the active practice of his profession in which 
he is still engaged. He was appointed a mem- 
ber of the first board of managers of the Sol- 
diers' Home at Grand Rapids and was its sec- 
retary for five years. He has been a member 
of the G. A. R. since 1868. Was judge advo- 
cate of the department in 1887 and department 
commander in 1889. He has the higher de- 
grees in the Masonic fraternity, including the 
Templar and Mystic Shrine degrees. 

Miss Mary Alice Osburn, daughter, of. Levi 
J. Osburn, of Big Rapids, became Mrs. Brown 
in 1870. They have four children now livings 
Carrie, wife of Samuel G. Reynolds, of Bil- 
lings, Montana; Lillian H., Olarencri^ F., tod 
Mary Alice, at school and college* 



MEN or PROGEESS. 




ROSWELL P. BISHOP. 

BISHOP, KOSWELL P. Mr. Bishop is a 
direct descendant of the Bishops who came 
from England and settled in Connecticut very 
early in the history of the State. His father, 
Edward Bishop, was a farmer and local Metho- 
dist preacher, living in Delaware county, New 
York, where he married Miss Anna Andrews, 
who was also a native of Delaware county, 
New York. Mr. Bishop was born at Sidney, 
Delaware county. New York, Jan. 6, 1843, 
being one of seven children. He was early 
called to provide for himself, and at the age of 
ten years went out from his home to earn a 
livelihood for himself, which he has done from 
that date, spending many of his early years 
mth one Henry Wickham, at Oneonta, New 
York. His first effort at gaining a livelihood 
was working on a farm for $1.50 per month, 
and at the breaking out of the Rebellion he 
was earning $13.00 per month. His education 
was received in the local schools up to his tenth 
year, with a few months at school subse- 
quently. July 28th, 1861, he enlisted in Com- 
pany C, Forty-third N. Y. Infantry Volun- 
teers, for service in the Civil War. He par- 
ticipated in the battles of Yorktown, Williams- 
burgh, Antietam and first Fredericksburgh, 



and was with McClellan during the Peninsular 
campaign. Was wounded at the battle of Lee's 
Mill, Va., April 28th, 1862, and lost his right 
arm. He was sent home for treatment, but 
soon rejoined his regiment, where he remained 
until the last of December, 1862, when he 
was mustered out of service. Keturning to 
his former home, the next six years were 
passed alternately in teaching and in prepara- 
tory studies at Unadilla, Cooperstown Semin- 
ary, and at Walton, N. Y. He entered the 
University of Michigan in the fall of 1868, 
taking a special course in the literary depart- 
ment, and then entered the law department, 
from which he graduated in 1872. While at 
Ann Arbor he spent one year as superinten- 
dent of the graded schools at Brooklyn, Jack- 
son county, Michigan, where he saved suffi- 
ciently from his wages to complete his course 
at the University. After graduating, he held 
a position under the sergeant-at-arms of the 
House and Senate, and in the postoffice at the 
national capital. In the spring of 1875 he 
was elected alderman of one of the wards at 
Ann Arbor, Mich. In June, 1875, he took up 
a homestead of 160 acres in Mason county, 
near Ludington, but in 1876 removed to Lud- 
ington, where he has since practiced his profes- 
sion of law. 

Mr. Bishop's official career has been excep- 
tional, and a just recognition of his abilities 
and of his sacrifices in the cause of the Union. 
He has served three terms as prosecuting at- 
torney of Mason county, elected in 1876, 1878 
and 1884. He served two terms as represen- 
tative in the Legislature of Michigan, being 
elected in 1882 and again in 1892. He is now 
serving his third term as Representative in 
Congress from the Ninth Michigan District, 
first elected in 1894, and is now in nomination 
for a fourth term. His plurality in 1 894 was 
about 8,300, his majority in 1896 about 5,500, 
his majority in 1898 about 6,500. He is sec- 
ond on the House Committee on private land 
claims and third on the committee on rivers 
and harbors. Mr. Bishop is a member of the 
G. A. E., Oddfellows, Knights of Pythias 
and Elks. He married Miss Louisa Gaunt, 
daughter of John Gaunt, of Ann Arbor, in 
1872. He has one son, Eoswell F., who grad- 
uated from the literary department of the 
University of Michigan in 1899, a.nd is now 
assistant librarian of the House of Eepresenta- 
tives at Washington. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



4# 



BUCK, HOMER E. The Saginaw Valley 
is famous for its men who have forged their 
way to the front from the smallest beginnings, 
and of this class Mr. Homer E. Buck, of Bay 
City, is among the notable 9nes. Born at 
Bath, Mich., Oct. 4, 1S59, his parents removed 
to Bay City, wh^re his father died when he was 
twelve years old, leaving the family, consist- 
ing of the son, his mother and a sister, with but 
small means. The son at once rose to the sit- 
uation. He became practically the head of the 
family and its support. He managed the cir- 
culation of the Detroit Evening I^ews at Bay 
City, giving his evenings to the w^ork, and real- 
izing therefrom $30 to $35 per month, which 
supported the family and paid his own ex- 
penses. He attended school during the day, 
and being bright and apt to learn, secured a 
good common school education. Push and 
energy and a natural aptness to please, made 
him friends, and he has the confidence and 
respect of all who know him, as well for his 
business qualities as for his known probity. 
When sixteen years old he entered the employ 
of L. F. Miller & Co., where during a five 
years' service he acquired a thorough knowl- 
edge of the wholesale trade. He then engaged 
in the wholesale produce business on his own 
account, and later as a member of the firm of 
Buck & Leighton, conducting a successful bus- 
iness for fourteen years, when he sold out to 
his partner and engaged in his present busi- 
ness, that of a commercial broker, importers' 
and manufacturers' agent, and car lot shipper. 
His present business brings him in touch with 
all the markets of the world and he handles 
some very large deals, both at home and 
abroad. He has been a member of the Board 
of Trade of Bay City for a number of years, 
and through his efforts while on the board 
many large business enterprises have been 
brought to the city. He is a stockholder in 
and president of the E. P. Roe Company of 
Bad Axe, and one of the directors of the Ar- 
genteuil Gold Mining Company, of Jackfish 
Bay, Canada, with large interests. He was a 
member of the board of fire commissioners of 
Bay City for three years and one year its presi- 
dent, and is now a member of the water board. 
He was one of the organizers of the Elm Lawn 
Cemetery Company, and is one of its directors. 
He is a Republican in politics, his first vote 
having been for James G. Blaine for president 
in 1884. He has been a member of the ward 
committee of his ward for fifteen years, has 
been treasurer of the county committee for a 
number of years and is at pTesent a member 
of the advisory board of the State League of 




HOMER E. BUCK. > 

Republican Clubs. He is a Mason and a mem- 
ber of the Knights of the Loyal Guard. He is 
a member and one of the deacons of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Bay City, his paternal 
ancestors having been for many yeara of that 
faith. Miss Margaret A. Lewis, daughter of 
Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Lewis, of Saginaw, be- 
came Mrs. Buck April 23rd, 1884. Seven chil- 
dren are the fruit of the union — Homer Clif- 
ford, Mary A., David Justice, Alma Blanche, 
Harold Lewis, Edna Marguerita and Helen 
Ester. Mr. Buck never fails to speak of his 
amiable wife as a true type of American 
womanhood and a loving and dutiful wife and 
mother. 

Mr. Buck is not a little proud of his family 
history, tracing it back in an unbroken line on 
the paternal side to the year 640. The family 
were originally from Holland, going from 
thence to England about the year 1500, and 
from IsTorf oik County, England, to Boston^ in 
1647. From there the family went to *N*ew 
York, settling upon the Harlem river, and be- 
ing among the founders of New Amsterdam 
(now IsTew York City). The family has been 
a prolific one, and the name is now found in 
all parts of the country. The family boast of 
having been a family of civil engineers and 
surveyors, and were also great fanners. Mr. 
Buck's mother, whose family name was Hen- 
derson, was of English and Scotch descent, and 
a native of the State of New York* The 
mother and sister are still livin|f, to feel a 
just pride in the prosperity of the son mxi 
brother, whose early efforts coritriWted m 
materially to their support and comfort. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




RICH RD G. PETERS. 

PETERS, RICHARD G. Mr. Peters 
was born July 2, 1832, in Delaware county, 
N. Y., upon the farm of his parents, James H. 
and Susan (Squires) Peters. The family re- 
moved to Syracuse, N. Y., and later to Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, where, as well as at Syracuse, 
they were engaged at hotel keeping. In 1847 
the mother died, and the son, now fifteen 
years of age, went to live with his grand- 
parents at TuUy, N. Y., where he worked 
upon the farm, and employed his winters in 
completing his education in the district 
schools. For a year he was employed by his 
uncle as gate-keeper on a toll road, and in this 
school of "human nature'' he learned much 
which in his subsequent career has enabled 
him to estimate man at their proper value. At 
the age of eighteen years he returned to Cin- 
cinnati, and in 1850 went to Monroe, Mich., 
where he worked on a farm belonging to a 
cousin, leaving in the fall to enter the employ 
of the Michigan Southern Railroad Company, 
in the engineering department. He was soon 
placed in charge of a division of the road, in 
the capacity of assistant civil engineer, a posi- 
tion which he occupied for five years. In 1855 
Mr. Peters' star beckoned him northward, 
where he took charge of the lumber and mill 
interests of the late Charles Hears at Big Point 
Au Sable, being thus employed for five years. 
He then went to Ludington, where he pur- 
chased a small tract of government land, and 
proceeded to get out timber on his own ac- 
count, giving up this enterprise, however, to 
accept a position with James Ludington, as 



superintendent of his mill and luniber opera- 
tions at the mouth of the Pere Marquette 
river (now the city of Ludington), where he 
remained two years. In 1866 Mr. Peters, to- 
gether with M. S. Tyson and G.W. Robinson, 
of Milwaukee, purchased the mill and timber 
property of Filer & Tyson, at Manistee, com- 
prising the sawmills on Manistee lake and a 
large portion of the site of the city of Man- 
istee, for which the sum of $250,000 was paid. 
His connection with this firm continued for 
two years, since which time Mr. Peters has 
been practically alone in his business affairs>, 
which have been mainly conducted under the 
style of ''The R. G. Peters Salt & Lumber 
Company." In 1869 Mr. Peters bought the 
Wheeler & Hopkins mill on Manistee Lake, 
which he operated until it Avas destroyed by 
fire thirteen years later. His next step was 
the purchase of forty acres of land, and a mill 
at East Lake, the site of the present Peters 
plant. This mill was rebuilt and a second mill 
added and upon the discovery of salt in this 
vicinity, a Avell was struck at the Peters plant 
and salt struck, adding this industry to that of 
the manufacture of Lumber. The Manistee & 
Luther railroad, extending from East Lake 
to near Le Roy, Osceola county, eighty miles, 
is part of the Peters plant. In the last named 
year also, Mr. Peters, in connection with Hor- 
ace Butters, purchased two large tracts of land, 
twenty-eight miles south of Manistee, on the 
F. & P. M. R. R., containing 130,000,000 feet 
of pine, and laid out the town of Tallman. 
This firm acquired mill property and a salt 
block at Ludington, together with thirty miles 
of Logging road. Mr. Peters' timber holdings 
in Michigan and Wisconsin have been esti- 
mated at 150,000 acres, with 100,000 acres in 
the south, and he has been styled the "King 
among lumbermen." Mr. Peters is president 
of the R. G. Peters Salt & Lumber Company, 
of the Manistee & Luther Railroad, of the 
Peters Lumber and Shingle Company of Ben- 
ton Harbor, is vice-president of the Butters 
& Peters Salt & Lumber Company of Lud- 
ington, and the Batchelor Cyprus Lumber 
Company with mills at Panasofl^kee, Florida, 
a director in the Manistee TTational Bank, in 
the Michigan Salt Association, and in the 
Manistee (Furniture) Manufacturing Com- 
pany. His religious connection is Congrega- 
tional. He is Republican in politics and a 
member of the Michigan Club. Mr. Peters 
has been twice married, but has no children. 
First to Miss Evelyn N. Tibbits, at Oberlin, 
Ohio, April 6, 1862, who died Feb. 14, 1879^ 
Again June 15, 1898 to Miss Jeanet Telford, 
of Onekama, Mich. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



HIRAM J. HOYT. In the first years of 
the 1840 decade there came to Michigan two 
brothers named Hoyt. One Avas a physician 
and the other a lawyer. They came from the 
State of New York, and their mission was to 
find a location in Michigan suitable for the 
practice of their respective professions. The 
physician, Dr. James W. Hoyt, settled at the 
little hamlet known as Walled Lake, in the 
town of Commerce, Oakland county, and the 
lawyer, AVm. C. Hoyt, settled in the village 
of Milford, in the same county, but subse- 
(piently removed to Detroit, where he died 
many years ago. That two young men should 
liave chosen places comparatively retired 
may be regarded as indicating their preference 
for a (piiet neighborhood life, in which they 
might enjoy the confidence, the respect and 
the love of their neighbors, rather than the 
bustling, shifting scenes of the commercial 
centers, wliere one man scarcely knows his 
neighbor. The life of Dr. Hoyt is confirma- 
tory of this thought. He lived to a ripe age, 
the skilled physician, the village practitioner, 
honored and beloved by a wide circle, the 
lapsing of the Avaters of the lake, near the 
banks of which he lived, singing his matin 
song and his vesper hymn, until at last they 
sang his requiem. For a number of years 
before his death Dr. Hoyt was totally blind, 
but continued his practice. His wife was 
Margaret Barrett, daughter of Hiram Barrett, 
a prominent citizen of Oakland County sixty 
years ago, and a most estimable lady. Chil- 
dren born of such parentage and with such 
surroundings may be supposed to be tempera- 
mentally influenced by them. Dr. and Mrs. 
Hoyt were the parents of ten children, of 
whom Hiram J. Avas the oldest. He Avas born 
at Walled Lake, March 23, 1843. His 
primary school education was supplemented 
by attendance at Aurora Academy at East 
Aurora, N. Y., from which he -graduated in 
1863. He at once took up the study of law 
in the ofiice of the late Judge M. E. Crofoot, 
of Pontiac, and after three years' study was 
admitted to practice before Judge Sanford M. 




HIRA.M J. HOYT. 

Green, then presiding in Oakland Circujt. 
He located in Muskegon in 1867, and pursued 
a successful practice alone f or seA^en years, and 
in 1874 became a member of the well known 
laAV firm of Smith, Ninis, Hoyt & Ervvin. 
This firm has continued uninterruptedly in 
business at Muskegon for over a quarter of a 
century. Mr. Hoyt has found an ample field 
for his efforts in his professional work, and has 
held no public office, although practically he 
is a Democrat both from inheritance and 
choice. He is a Thirty-Second Degree Mason 
and a member of the Muskegon Commandery 
Knights Templar. He was for many years 
an officer and active member of the Universal- 
ist Church. He Avas married February 26, 
1867, to Miss Ada E. Smith, daughter of 
Benjamin Smith, a farmer of Oakland 
county. One son, Wilbur S., a graduate of 
the Orchard Lake Military Academy, and noA\' 
engaged as a packer and shipper of dried fruits 
and raisins at Fresno, California, is the fruit 
of the union. The Hoyts are direct descend' 
ants from Simon Hoyt, who came from Eng- 
land in 1638, and settled near Hartford, Conn. 



MEN OF. PROGRESS. 




CHARLES J. CANFIELD. 

CHARLES J. CANFIELD. Mr. Can- 
field was born at Manistee, April 1st, 1868, 
the son of John and Frances V. (Wheeler) 
Canfield, his mother having been from Berk- 
shire county, Mass. He received his educa- 
tion in the public schools of Manistee, and 
at the age of eighteen became an assistant to 
his father in his extensive lumbering opera- 
tions, beginning at the bottom and learning 
all the varied branches of the business. His 
business interests at present are represented 
as follows: He is executor, Avith his mother, 
of his father's estate, secretary and treasurer 
of the Canfield Salt & Lumber Company, 
vice-president of the Canfield & Wheeler 
Company (Manistee), secretary and treasurer 
of the TJnion Lumber & Salt Company of 
Stronach, president of the Manistee & Grand 
Rapids Railroad Company. 

In the spring of 1900 Mr. Canfield was 
nominated for mayor of Manistee by the 
Republicans, and elected by a majority of 
1,200, being the second Republican mayor 
elected in that city since its incorporation. 
Personally Mr. Canfield is modest and unas- 
suming, but is, in current phrase, a hustling 
young business man, having the confidence 



and respect of everybody. He was married 
in 1889 to Miss Belle Gardner, daughter of 
C. D. Gardner, of Manistee. One daughter, 
Doris, is the fruit of the marriage. 

The biography of a young man of two and 
thirty is necessarily brief in itself. But, like 
most descendants of New England stock, Mr. 
Canfield boasts an ancestry in which he feels 
not a little pride. He is eighth in descent 
from Thomas Canfield, Avho came from Eng- 
land early in the seventeenth century, set- 
tling at Milford, Conn., where his name 
appears as early as 1646, and was one of the 
commission who obtained a charter for the 
colony of Connecticut. The grandfather of 
Charles J., Roswell Canfield, was a native of 
Massachusetts, but became a lumber dealer 
in Racine, Wis., in 1842. He built a mill 
and became interested in the lumber trade 
at Manistee in 1848, and his son, John Can- 
field, father of Charles J., became a resident 
there and partner with his father in 1849. 
John Canfield was born at Sandisfield, 
Mass., in 1830, and attended school at Sandis- 
field, at Homer, New York, and at Racine, 
Wis. When he was fourteen years of age 
he left school, and for three years worked 
as a clerk in a mercantile establishment at 
Racine. He then spent a year in his father's 
lumber yard at Racine piling and selling 
lumber, and at the end of the year, his father 
placed the bookkeeping of the firm in his 
hands. Roswell Canfield died in 1860, and 
the Manistee interests then comprising two 
mills, passed into the hands of his two sons, 
Edmund and John, under the firm name of 
E. & J. Canfield until the death of Edmund 
in 1868, when E. D. Wheeler acquired his 
interest under the firm name of Canfield & 
Wheeler. In 1865 John Canfield became a 
partner with James Shrigley, under the firm 
name of Shrigley & Canfield, in the erec- 
tion of a mill since known as the East Lake 
Mill of the Canfield Salt & Lumber Com- 
pany. Mr. Canfield became one of the most 
widely known and extensive operators in 
Northern Michigan, and had extensive hold- 
ings of timber lands both in Michigan and 
Wisconsin. He was a man of the strictest 
probity and enjoyed the confidence of his fel- 
low citizens, both at home and abroad. Mr. 
Canfield died in 1889. His widow is still 
living at Manistee. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



YOUNGQUIST, M. D., OTIS E. Delta 
County Hospital in Escanaba, Michigan, is 
under the charge of Dr. Otis E. Youngquist, 
a physician of only 31 years of age, yet skilled 
and learned in the Hippocratic art. 

The hospital has 50 beds and during the 
year of 1898 as many as 510 patients were 
treated there for the county. 

Andrew J. Youngquist, the father of the 
subject of this sketch, came from Sweden to 
America in 1852 and located on a farm near 
Plymouth, Michigan, where he lived for ten 
years, and then, in 1862, moved to Lisbon, 
Kent County, Michigan, where, December 28, 
1868, Otis E. Youngquist was born. 

The son of a farmer, and born on a farm, 
the boy helped all he could in the cultivation 
of the fields, but imtil he was 11 years of age 
he was given the benefits of the district school 
during the full terms, and after that during 
the winter terms only, until he reached 13. 
He then attended the public schools of Lisbon 
until 1884, when he found a position in the 
drug store of Dr. S. J. Koon, of that place, 
where he commenced work and studied phar- 
macy. One year was given to this work and 
study and at the end of the year he took the 
examination before the State Board of Phar- 
macists at Lansing, Michigan, and was given 
a certificate as a registered pharmacist. Mr. 
Youngquist then returned to Dr. Koon's drug 
store in Lisbon, where he had learned his pro- 
fession, and entering his employ remained 
with him for three years, during which time 
he commenced the study of medicine. In the 
fall of 1888 he entered the medical depart- 
ment of the Eush Medical College at Chicago, 
Illinois, and by working during vacations he 
managed to pay his way through that college. 
He became a nurse, and assistant nurse in the 
hospital and earned a little money in this way, 
and one summer he went to Casnovia, Michi- 
gan, and became an assistant to Dr. C. E. 
Kook and came back to college in the fall with 
$160 in his pocket, the result of his sum- 
mer's work. The following summer, after 
the death of his former employer, Dr. S. J. 
Koon, Mr. Youngquist returned to Lisbon and 




OTIS E. YOUNGQUIST, M. D. 

practiced there for a short time. In March, 
1892, he was graduated from the Eush Med- 
ical College. He traveled about the country, 
seeking a place where he could hang up the 
diploma and a shingle, visiting several of the 
lar2:e and small cities of the Northwest, and 
at last, on July 11, 1892, landing in Escanaba, 
Michigan, without a cent. 

He rented a building three days later, and 
the first day netted him one dollar in cash. 
The next day brought him seven dollars, and 
since that time he has built up an extensive 
and remunerative practice. 

Dr. Youngquist is a Republican. At this 
writing he is city physician and health officer, 
and also a member of the school board of Es- 
canaba. He was on the building committee 
during the erection of the new Washington 
street school, a brick structure which Was a 
new departure in schools at Escanaba, Br. 
Youngquist married in 1893 Miss S. Willhel- 
menia Gustaf son at Ishpeming, MichigaB. H^ 
has one child, Otis G., aged two. Dr. Yottiig* 
quist is a member of the North Star Swed^ 
Society, the E. A. M., B. P. O- E., 1 O. O* 
F., A. O. tJ. W. and the K. (X T. M. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




HON. NATHAN MYRON KAUFMAN. 

KAUFMAJs^, HON. NATHAN MY- 
RON. Marquette, Michigan, is the birth- 
place of Nathan Myron Kaufman, and in that 
city he ^s'as educated and spent most of his 
life. His father, Samuel Kaufman, came 
from Germany in 1849, and removed to Mar- 
quette in 1852, and was one of the first and 
most successful merchants in that town. 

Nathan Myron Kaufman was born July 4, 
1862, and until he was 16 years of age he at- 
tended the public and high school of Mar- 
quette, working when old enough during his 
vacations and on Saturdays in liis father's 
store. When he became 16 years of age he 
secured the position of traveling man with the 
firm of Wilson Bros., of Chicago, selling a 
line of gentlemen's furnishing goods through- 
out northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Min- 
nesota. He was employed on a salary and 
commission basis and saved enough money in 
two years to enable him to open an establish- 
ment in the same line at Negaunee, and later 
to open a general store in the same place. In 
1883 he sold 'out and became associated with 
his father at Marquette, and it was while he 
was engaged in business with his father that 



he commenced operating in iron and mineral 
lands with much success. 

In 1885 Mr. Kaufman secured an option 
on the Blue Mine, which he opened into one 
of the best iron producers in this state and 
later sold at an excellent profit. He enlarged 
in his dealings, making a feature of opening 
and developing the valuable mining properties 
of the Upper Peninsula, until in 1888, when 
lie was appointed general manager of the 
Brietung estate, which was one of the largest 
holders of mineral lands in the Upper Penin- 
sula. He conducted the affairs of the estate, 
handling and disposing of their property in a 
most able manner until 1892. 

Mr. Kaufman is a Republican, and in 
1893-94 he was mayor of his native city, giv- 
ing Marquette an excellent and progressive 
administration during his tenii of office. 

Mr. Kaufman still operates in mining prop- 
erty and has an interest in many enterprises 
of that nature. He is the president of the 
Washington iron mine in Marquette, a valu- 
able property; a director in the Republic mine 
of Negaunee, secretary of the Negaunee Iron 
Mining Company, and a director in the Arc- 
tic Mining Company. He is also the presi- 
dent of the Marquette (^ounty Savings Bank. 

June 30, 1893, Mr. Kaufman married Mrs. 
^fary Brietung, widow of Edward Breitung, 
at Marquette. 

Mr. Kaufman is a man with a wide range 
of friends and acquaintances throughout the 
state, and highly esteemed in the community 
in which he lives. He has taken all the Ma- 
sonic degrees, including the Knights Templar 
and both the Scottish and York Rite Consis- 
tory. He has also wandered over the sands 
to the Shrine, being a member of Saladin 
Temple at Grand Rapids. Besides the Ma- 
sonic order, he belongs to that flourishing and 
charitable organization, the Benevolent Pro- , 
tective Order of Elks, the Marquette Lodge. 

He owns a fine home in Marquette and is 
always willing to further any scheme for the 
betterment of his native city, and the interests 
of his fellow citizens, by whom he is looked 
upon as a representative capitalist and man of 
progress. 



HISTOEIOAL SKETCHES. 



469. 



SEAKL, KELLY S. Mr. Searl was born 
Feb. 1st, 1862, at Fairfield, Shiawassee Co., 
Mich., his parents having emigrated from 
Ohio to that place in the early fifties. His 
father, Chauncey D. Searl, is a native of Ver- 
mont, and is still living on his farm in Shia- 
wassee county. His mother was Harriet E. 
Kelly, a native of Ohio, but now deceased. Mr. 
Searl attended the district school until about 
sixteen years of age, and then attended the 
village school at Elsie and Ovid, finishing his 
literary education at the Indiana Normal 
School at Valparaiso, after which he taught 
school for several years in order to earn enough 
money to defray his expenses in taking a 
course of law at Ann Arbor, and in 1884 en- 
tered the law department of the University, 
from which he was graduated in 1886. In 
March, 1887, he opened a law office at Ashley, 
where he engaged in practice during the fol- 
lowing three years, and in April, 1890, he set- 
tled in Ithaca,, Avhere he has since been en- 
gaged in active practice, having justly earned 
the reputation of being the leading lawyer of 
Gratiot county. He is at present the senior 
partner in the law firm of Searl & Kress. Mr. 
Searl is an ardent Republican, and foremost 
in the councils of his party, and has several 
times declined to allow his name to be pre- 
sented for office for the reason that he desires 
to devote his entire time to his chosen profes- 
sion. However, when the people of his county 
insisted that he should allow his name to be 
presented for Circuit Judge in the spring of 
1898 he gave his consent and was the candi- 
date of his county in the Eepublican judicial 
convention held at St. Johns. Judge S. B. 
Daboll, who had occupied the bench in that 
circuit for a period of about ten years, was 
the choice of the Republicans of Clinton 
county, and each county having twelve dele- 
gates, a deadlock ensued, which lasted about 
two weeks, and the convention being unable 
to make a choice, it was adjourned sine die, 
and no nomination being made, the candidate 
up^n the silver ticket, George P. Stone, of 
Ithaca, was elected without opposition. In the 
summer of 1900 Mr. Searl was urgently re-' 




KELLY S. SEARL. 

quested to allow his name to be presented as a 
candidate for Congress in the Eleventh Dis- 
trict, but declined on the ground that the Hon. 
A. B. Darragh was entitled to the place, and 
immediately interested himself in the nomina- 
tion of Mr. Darragh, and had the gratification 
of assisting to make the nomination of that 
gentleman unanimous at Traverse City for 
the canvass of 1900. 

Among the important cases Mr. Searl has 
managed may be mentioned the Portsmouth 
Savings Bank vs. The Village of Ashley (91 
Mich., 670). The question involved was 
whether or not the president and clerk of a 
village had the legal right to deliver water- 
works bonds without authority of the council, 
and whether or not the innocent purchaser of 
such bonds could hold the village for payment. 
The Supreme Court decided the village was 
not liable and declared the bonds void. Mr. 
Searl was attorney for the defendant and pre- 
vailing party. Mr. Searl is a member of the 
M. E. Church and of the Masonic order, the 
Oddfellows, Knights of Pythias and Macca- 
bees. Miss Maggie A. Smith, daughter of 
Wm. W. Smith, of Mason, Mich., became Mrs. 
Searl Sept. 30^ 1885. Their childrto are 
Ethel Maud, Hazel Belle and Willie Chaun- 
cey, aged respectively nine, seven and five 
years. 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




WILLIAM H. C. MITCHELL. 

MITCHELL, WILLIAM H. 0. A sketch 
of Mr. Mitchell's active life overcaps the haK 
century mark. Born at Mount Perry, Ohio, 
May 30th, 1825, his education was received in 
the district schools in Lima, O. He is in direct 
descent from George Mitchell, who came 
from Scotland in 1769 and settled in York 
county, Pa. His mother, Maria D. Bentley, 
was from Winchester, Va. His parents moved 
to Lima, O., in 1831, being the second family 
to settle there. In 1843 he was sent to Ur- 
bana, O., to learn the trade of a tinsmith, and 
served three years, working the first year for 
his board, and receiving $4 and $6 per month 
respectively for the second and third years. 
In the spring of 1846 he started out as a jour- 
neyman tinner and was in New Orleans when 
the Mexican war was in progress, and tried to 
enlist in an Ohio regiment when in that city, 
on its way to the front. In the spring of 1849 
he joined the procession that marched across 
the plains to California, led there by the gold 
discoveries, being the first of the memorable 
migration from the States to the Pacific coast. 
He arrived in Sacramento August 1 7th, 1849, 
and worked at mining and at4iis trade until 
1851 in Ooloma, when he began buying cattle 



and hogs. He bought his hogs in Ore- 
gon and shipped them to Sacramento and 
drove them from there to Placerville (then 
called Hangtown), where he had his head- 
quarters. He was successful in the venture, 
and in June, 1853, he returned to Ohio by the 
Central American route. He built a grist mill 
at Lima, and soon after became engaged in 
the manufacture of sash, blinds and furniture. 
In 1866 he removed to Traverse City, which 
has since been his residence, and engaged in 
the manufacture of lumber, with his partner, 
Morris Mahan, who died in 1883, and who 
had been associated with him since they went 
across the plains in 1849. In 1893 the busi- 
ness was merged into a company incorporated 
as the East Bay Lumber Company, of which 
Mr. Mitchell has been secretary and treasurer 
from its organization. Since the death of 
Morris Mahan his children are interested in 
the business. 

Mr. MitchelFs political career will be a rem- 
iniscence to a few persons now living who were 
in active life during the 1850 decade. His 
first public office was that of village trustee at 
Lima, 1847. He was candidate for township 
clerk in 1857 on the American or Know Noth- 
ing ticket, which party has mention on page 
73 of this work. He was a delegate to the 
national convention of that party at Philadel- 
phia, February 22, 1856, which nominated 
ex-President Fillmore for President, and An- 
drew J". Donelson, of Tennessee, for Vice- 
President. He has since been a Eepublican. 
He was a delegate to the national convention 
in 1876 which nominated Kutherford B. 
Hayes for President, and again in 1900, 
which nominated McKinley and Koosevelt, 
and has attended every convention since 1876. 
He was receiver of the U. S. Land Office at 
Keed City, 1878-87, when it was consolidated 
with the office at Grayling. He served two 
terms as representative in the Legislature, 
1869-70 and in 1871-2, and two terms as sen- 
ator, 1873-4 and 1875-6. He has held various 
local offices, including justice of the peace (14 
years), school inspector, member of the board 
of review and township treasurer. 

Mr. Mitchell was married in 1852 at Lima, 
O., to Miss Isabella Milligan, daughter of 
Thomas Milligan. Two daughters and two 
sons are the fruit of the union, Arahmenta, 
wife of John H. Bean, Traverse City; Alviso 
L., wife of Gordon Land, Denver, Col. ; Thorn- 
ton a railway engineer, and William, vice- 
president of the East Bay Lumber Company. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



4fl 



DANAHER, MICHAEL B. Mr. Dana- 
her's father came from near Limerick, Ireland, 
where his family had resided for over a cen- 
tury and settled on a farm near Kenosha; 
Wis., where the son, Michael B., was born 
Sept. 28, 1855. He first attended school at 
Brighton, Wis., up to the age of ten years, 
when his parents moved to Kenosha. There 
he attended the public schools up to the eighth 
grade. His parents subsequently removed to 
Ludington, Mich., where he had the advan- 
tages of the local schools up to the age of sev- 
enteen. He then passed a couple of years as 
clerk in a law office*, and in 1874 entered the 
L'niversity, graduating from the literary de- 
partment four years later. He then entered 
the law office of C. Gr. Wing at Ludington, 
and read law until 1882, when he was admitted 
to practice before Judge S. D. Haight, at Lud- 
ington. He opened an office and practiced his 
profession with the thorough preparation of a 
four-year literary course and a subsequent 
four-years' reading. They are usually am- 
bitious and impatient to begin work, and too 
many of them get there like the Duke of Glou- 
cester (Richard HI.)? ^^Scarce half made up.'' 
Mr. Danaher's thorough preparation has en- 
sured him a standard practice from the first. 
He is local attorney for the Pere Marquette 
railway system at Ludington, and also attor- 
ney for the First National Bank. While do- 
ing an all round law business his practice runs - 
largely to corporation cases. Outside of his 
professional business, he is one of the mana- 
gers of the Danaher & Melendy Company, 
who are extensive owners of real estate, includ- 
ing platted additions to the city of Ludington. 
He is vice-president of the Danaher & Melendy 




MICHAEL B. DANAHER. 

Company, one of the largest lumbering con- 
cerns in Ludington, and now operating a plant 
at DoUarville, in the Upper Peninsula. Mr. 
Danaher's father was originally the senior in 
the firm of Danaher & Melendy, but by reason 
of the panic of 1873 he became financially em- 
barrassed, and the sons, James E., Cornelius 
D. and Michael B., pooled their savings and 
took the father's place in the firm, which was 
continued under the same name. 

Mr. Danaher is a Democrat politically, and 
of the gold standard kind under the later clas- 
sification. He was elected prosecuting attor- 
ney of Mason county in 1886 and re-elected 
in 1888, serving four years. He has been 
city attorney for several years and a member 
of the board of education of Ludington five 
years. He is unmarried and has no secret 
society connections. 



^^i* 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 




MARK WELLINGTON STEVENS. 

STEVENS, MAKE WELLINGTON. 
Mark W< Stevens is of Scotch-Irish descent, 
his parents having been among the early set- 
tlers of Genesee county, Michigan. Mr. 
Stevens' father, after a period spent laboring 
on the farm of ex-Governor Kingsley S. Bing- 
ham, in Livingston county, purchased a piece 
of land for himself in Genesee county, and it 
was on this little farm, in Argentine township, 
that the subject of this sketch was born, April 
1st, 1849. The lad's early life was spent as a 
farmer's boy, he securing what little education 
he could from the neighboring district school, 
working on the farm in the summer time in 
order to obtain sufficient means to enable him 
to attend the union schools at Byron and later 
at Fenton. He prepared for a course at the 
LTniversity, but finances were too low to en- 
able him to gratify this ambition. At the age 
of nineteen he commenced teaching a district 
school, continuing for three years, when he 
was made principal of the schools at Linden, 
Mich. Two years later he engaged as a sales- 
man of carriages at that and other places. 
Meanwhile he had been reading law, and con- 
cluding to make that his profession he went 
to Flint, entering the law offices of Lee & 
Aitken in January, 1882. He was admitted to 
the bar in March of the same year, before 
Judge William Newton, of Flint, and in May 
formed a co-partnership with one John H. 



Hickok, under the firm name of Hickok & 
Stevens, commencing practice in the offices 
now occupied by Mr. Stevens. 

In politics Mr. Stevens has always been a 
Democrat and for a great many years has been 
actively identified with that party and its can- 
didates. He has stumped the state in the in- 
terest of his party's candidates in every cam- 
paign since 1884 and has also been engaged 
in political work for the national committee in 
other states. He was elected president of the 
first Cleveland and Hendricks Club at Flint 
in 1884, also secretary of the county commit- 
tee, and made an active campaign for the ticket 
in the sixth congressional district. 

In September, 1885, Mr. Stevens' ability 
was recognized by the Cleveland administra- 
tion and he was appointed Indian agent for 
Michigan, holding the office for four years. 
He had full charge of the twelve Indian 
schools in the state, and in snch official capa- 
city obtained considerable prominence be- 
cause of the vigorous prosecutions he insti- 
tuted and pushed in the United States courts 
against lumbermen who had cut timber il- 
legally from Indian lands, resulting in thou- 
sands of dollars being recovered for the gov- 
ernment. In August, 1891, he was appointed 
secretary of the Board of World's Fair Com- 
missioners by Gov. Winans and held that posi- 
tion for two and one-half years. As such he 
practically had charge of Michigan's interests 
during the World's Fair. He was nominated 
for Congress in the Sixth District in 1894, but 
declined the honor. He has served as chair- 
man of the Democratic county committee of 
Genesee county, and in 1888 was clerk of the 
city of Flint. Fraternally, Mr. Stevens has 
Masonic relations and is also a member of the 
Maccabees. He was one of the incorporators 
of the Knights of the Loyal Guard, and is the 
legal advisor of that order. He was one of the 
delegates from Michigan to the Democratic 
national convention at Kansas City on July 
4th, 1900. 

Mr. Stevens married Miss Mary L. Beach at 
Linden, Mich., in August, 1874. One son, 
Fred J. Stevens, a first tenor in the Castle 
Square Opera Company, has been born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Stevens. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



:.mi 



CROUTER, GEORGE W. The parents 
of Mr. Crouter, Stephen S. and Martha (Fen- 
nell) Croiiter, were farmers near Whitby, 
Ont., where a son, the subject of this sketch, 
was born Jan. 8, 1853. The son attended the 
neighborhood school and subsequently a 
graded school, at Strathroy. At the age of 
fourteen he Avas apprenticed to the drug busi- 
ness with (^hamberlain and Gibbard, of Strath- 
roy, witli wliom he remained four years, serv- 
ing the first year without compensation, and 
the fourth year receiving but $5 per week. He 
took an examination at the Ontario College 
of Pharmacy at Toronto, and received the re- 
quisite certificate as a registered phannacist. 
Tie came to Michigan in 1871 and parsed a 
year in the employ of E. B. Escott, a druggist 
of ( J rand Rapids. lie then decided to locate at 
( 'liarlevoix, Avhere he started in the drug busi- 
ness with a capital of t$l 95, and such credit as 
a good character and a thorough mastery of his 
profession assured him. He conducted a suc- 
cessful business for twenty years, having in 
1875-G taken a course in dentistry thus ply- 
ing the two professions of druggist and dentist 
during the building up of the toAvn. 

Mr. Crouter was a director and one of the 
promoters of the Detroit, Charlevoix & Es- 
canaba railroad in 1889, which is now a part 
of the Flint & Pere Marquette system. He is 
manager of the Michigan Bell Telephone 
Company at Charlevoix and is senior mem- 
ber of the Shepard Hardware Company and 
senior partner in the firm of M. V. Cook & 
Co., pharmacists, of Charlevoix. His ma- 
terial interests are closely identified Avith the 
town, he being the owner of several business 
blocks and an extensive owner of real estate, 
having thirty-five acres platted inside the vil- 
lage. Politically he is a Democrat and has 
been chairman of the Democratic county com- 
mittee for sixteen years. He was deputy col- 
lector of United States customs at Charlevoix 
under the Cleveland administrations, serving 
in all eight years, and w^as a member of the 
village council six years, and is at present a 
member of the board of education. He was an 




GEORGE W. CROUTER. 

alternate delegate to the Democratic national 
convention at Chicago in 1896. 

When the State Pharmaceutical Association 
was organized, Mr. Croiiter was elected chair- 
man of tlie executive committee and the sec- 
ond year (1886-7) was elected president of the 
association. It Avas during his presidency that 
the bill for the organization of a State Board 
of Pharmacy was passed by the Legislature. 
He represented the Association officially at 
Lansing and was influential in procuring the 
passage of the bill, but declined an appoint- 
ment on the board created by it. He became 
a member of the order of Oddfellows at 
Grand Kapids in 1871 and in 1879 became a 
member of the grand lodge of the state. He 
has filled all the chairs in the grand lodge and 
was Grand Master in 1889 and 1890. He rep- 
resented the Michigan Grand Lodge as Grand 
Eepresentative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge 
at its meeting in St. Louis, Mo., in 1891. He 
was captain and aid under Col. O. A. Janes, of 
the First Kegiment Michigan Patriarchs Mili- 
tant (I. O. O. F.) in 1888, and in 1890 was 
colonel and aid on the staff of Gen. F. 0. Un- 
derwood. 

Mr. Crouter was married to his present wife 
March 10, 1891, and has one child, George 
Auld Crouter, eight years of age. 



47* 



METSr or PKOGRE88. 




JAMES K. FLOOD. 

FLOOD, JAMES K. Mr. Flood was born 
at Sweaburg, Ont., July 24, 1846, his par- 
ents, however, Noah and Joanna (Lewis) 
Flood, having been American born, the father 
a native of Vermont and the mother of 'New 
York. His father died when he was three 
years old, but the mother kept the family to- 
gether, the son attending the local schools un- 
til twelve years of age. He then began work 
for a farmer near Woodstock and worked as a 
fann hand until the age of seventeen, con- 
tributing his income toward the support of the 
family. In 1864 he came to Michigan, where 
an uncle and an older brother had preceded 
him. He went first to Grand Haven by train, 
and thence by lake to Pentwater, reaching 
there with $1.J50 as his financial resources. 
He found work in the saw mill of Hart & 
Maxwell, where he worked that summer, 
working in the woods the ensuing fall and 
winter. In the spring he secured a position as 
clerk in the Corlett House and later in the 
Bryant House at Pentwater. Hotel life is 
not usually conducive to study and mental 
culture, but Mr. Flood grappled with the task 
of improving his education, and one of the 
proprietors heard his recitations and acted as 



an all round pedagogue. While in the hotel 
he made the acquaintance of J. G. Gray, of 
Pentwater, who conceived a liking for him 
and tendered him a position in his drug store. 
He accepted the offer and in the fall of 1869 
Mr. Gray proposed a partnership, which re- 
sulted in the opening of a drug store at the 
village of Hart, to which Mr. Flood contrib- 
uted some $500, which he had saved, he hav- 
ing charge of the business. The venture was 
successful and the next year Mr. Flood pur- 
chased the interest of Mr. Gray and continued 
the business until 1878, when he sold out and 
engaged in the manufacturing and handling 
of lumber, which he has since successfully 
followed. He has continued to reside at Hart, 
with whose commercial and financial inter- 
ests he is largely identified. In 1874, with 
others, he organized the Citizens' Exchange 
Bank of Hart, a private bank of which the co- 
partners are F. J. Kussell, A. S. White, and 
himself. He is secretary and manager of the 
Hart Cedar & Lumber Company and owns a 
fruit farm of sixty acres adjoining the vil- 
lage. He was one of the original stockholders 
of the Oceana County Agricultural Society. 
Mr. Flood has served the people of his lo- 
cality in useful and responsible official posi- 
tions. He has been a member of the local 
school board ten years, was postmaster at Hart 
four years, 1881-6, and has served three terms 
in the Legislature. He was elected to the 
House in 1894 and to the Senate from the 
Twenty-sixth district, comprising the coun- 
ties of Lake, Manistee, Mason and Oceana, in 
1896, and re-elected in 1898, having in each 
case ireceived the nomination unanimous^ly 
and by acclamation. He is now (1900) filling 
the position of supervisor of the twelfth 
United States census. He is a Eepublican in 
politics and a member of the Michigan (Re- 
publican) club. He is a Mason, including the 
Knights Templar and Consistory degrees. 
Miss Julia C. Lewis, daughter of Leonard 
Lewis, of Westminister, Ont, became Mrs. 
Flood in 1875. The one son, Carl L., is as- 
sistant cashier of the Citizens' Exchange 
Bank of Hart. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



riLEK, E. GOLDEN. The name of Filer 
became a familiar one in tlie early history of 
northern Michigan, and is localized by the 
name of a township in Manistee county and by 
a hamlet known as Filer City, now a suburb of 
the city of Manistee. The family is of Scotch 
descent, Delos L. Filer, father of E. Golden, 
having been born of Scotch parents in Her- 
kimer county, N. Y., in 1817. He was a man 
of marked capabilities, filling betimes the 
various offices of farmer, teacher, merchant 
and lumberman, and after his removal to 
Manistee, ministering to the sick as a physi- 
cian, in the absence of men of that profession. 
The elder Filer was three times married, the 
second time, in 1840, to Miss Juliet Golden, 
the mother of E. G., whose family name is 
borne by him. Mr. Filer, with his family, 
removed to Racine, Wis., in 1850, and while 
there entered the employ of Roswell Canfield, 
which led to his removal to Manistee in 1853, 
where the Canfields were already established. 
A man of middle life at the time and with but 
limited means he grasped the opportunity that 
presented itself, and acquired milling and lum- 
ber interests which in a few years grew to be 
an ample fortune. He was at one time owner 
of much of the land on which the city of 
Manistee is built, was an active agent in build- 
ing up the city and made liberal donations 
both in land and money, toward the erection 
of churches and public buildings. His Man- 
istee interests were chiefly represented by the 
firm of D. L. Filer & Sons (E. G. and D. W.), 
and leaving their management to the sons, he 
in 1868 acquired interests at Ludington, to 
which place he removed and died there July 
26th, 1879, mourned by a community which 
felt the loss of a good and useful man. 

E. Golden Filer was born in Jefferson 
county, N. Y., Dec. 4, 1840, and came west 
with his parents when nine years of age. His 
education was mainly received at the public 
schools of Racine and at Racine College. 
While living at Manistee in 1857 he accom- 
panied Hon. T. J. Ramsdell to Lansing and 
was there tendered and accepted a clerkship 
in the Auditor General's office, which he held 




E. GOLDEN FILER. 

until 1862, when the Civil War was at full 
tide. He then enlisted in Company A, Twen- 
tieth Michigan Infantry, and served two years 
with the Army of the Potomac. Honorably 
discharged, in 1864 he 'returned to Manistee 
and was associated with his father's work un- 
til the formation of the firm of D. L* Filer 
& Sons (see preceding) in 1866, His life work 
has since been with that connection. He is 
resident member of the firm (still continued 
under the same name) at Filer City. He is 
vice-president of the Manistee County Sav- 
ings Bank, a director in and treasurer of the 
Manistee & Grand Rapids Railroad Company, 
and a director in the Michigan Trust Company 
of Grand Rapids, the Pere Marquette Lumber 
Company of Ludington, the Michigan Salt 
Association, the New York. Land Company 
and the Manistee Boom Company, of the lat- 
ter of which he was president for twelve 
years. In his public spirit, in his business en- 
terprises and probity, Mr. Filer wortMly 
sustains the reputation which his father es- 
tablished. Mr. Filer is a Republican in poli- 
tics but has never held any political office. 
Miss Julia Filer, daughter of Alanson Fil€a», 
of Racine, became Mrs. Filer in 1865^ but 
there are no children in the family. 



476 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




GEORGE P. HUMMER. 

HUMMER, GEORGE P. Mr. Hummer 
is one of the leading spirits of Holland and 
western Michigan, and his name corresponds 
with the person, as he is an all round hummer 
in the affairs of life. He is a native of ^ew 
Jersey, born in 1 856, and is an adopted son of 
an imcle,* George Hummer, of Grand ville, 
Mich., who came to the State in 1852 from 
Easton, Pa. Mr. Hummer's education was 
rounded out at the Northern Indiana Normal 
School and Business Institute, from which he 
graduated in 1882, going direct to Holland to 
assume the superintendancy of the schools 
there, which position he held until 1889. That 
he should have been chosen for such a posi- 
tion in a community in which Dutch educa- 
tional methods may be supposed to prevail, 
may be regarded as evidence of a marked fit- 
ness for the place. And usually a young man 
who has passed the first years of his active 
life in pedagoguey does not readier make up 
into the hustling business man. But Mr. 
Hummer broke through the bars on closing 



his school connection in 1889 and established 
the West Michigan Furniture Company of 
Holland, of which he is secretary and mana- 
ger, a concern now employing 500 men, with 
an output the past year of $750,000. The 
company was first organized with a capital of 
$20,000 and the works started up with about 
100 employes. They have never seen an idle 
day, nor the shadow of a strike, from the bo- 
ginning to the present time. Mr. Hummer's 
business connections are varied and exten- 
sive. Aside from his connection with the 
West Michigan Furniture Com])any, he is a 
director in the Holland & (.liicago Thmspor- 
tation Company, operating a line of passen- 
ger steamers between Holland and Chicago, is 
president of the Buss Machine Company of 
Ilolland, a member of tlie executive coiiniiit- 
tee of the Holland Beet Sugar Company, a 
director in the Grand Rapids Publishing 
Company, publishers of the Daily and Weekly 
Democrat, a director in the Holland Improve- 
ment Company, and a stockholder in the First 
State Bank of Holland. He was president of 
the State Association of Furniture Manufac- 
turers, 1897-99, and was made president of the 
national association at its organization in Chi- 
cago in June, 1899. 

Politically, Mr. Hummer is a Democrat, 
with a Populistic and Silver setting. He was 
elected Mayor of Holland in 1893 and again 
in 1894, and was a member of the school 
board 1890-93. In 1896 he was the candidate 
of his party for Congress, and ran 300 votes 
ahead of the national or Bryan ticket. He is 
a member of the Order of Elks, of the Knights 
of Pythias and Foresters. Mr. Hummer was 
married in 1885 to Miss Maggie Plugger, a 
beautiful and talented young lady of Hol- 
land, who, with three charming daughters, 
graces one of the most hospitable homes in 
the city. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



BLACKEE, KOBEET E. Mr. Blacker 
k the present secretary-treasurer and general 
manager of the State Lumber Company of 
Manistee. He is a native of Canada, having 
been born at Brantford, October 31, 1845, at 
which place his early education was received. 
While but a young man of nineteen years of 
age he left his home at Brantford, and came 
to Michigan, passing a couple of years at 
Buchanan, and later taking up his residence in 
Manistee, where for a number of years he 
followed the vocation of a lumber inspector, 
in this way becoming thoroughly acquainted 
with the details connected with the manufac- 
ture and sale of lumber. During his residence 
in Manistee he has been a prominent figure 
not only in affairs pertaining to the lumber 
industry, but in political and social circles as 
well. 

In 1875 Mr. Blacker associated himself 
with E. (J. Peters in a business partnership 
which took the name of E. E. Blacker & Co., 
the purpose being the operation of a shingle 
mill wdiich they had erected. Four years 
later Mr. Blacker formed a partnership with 
K. T. Davies and Patrick Noud, under the 
firm name of Davies, Blacker & Co., the first 
undertaking of Avhicli was the building and 
operation of a saw and shingle mill plant, to 
which in 1887 they added a salt block. The 
business of this company was carried on unin- 
terruptedly until the organization of the State 
l^umber Company, which took its place, and 
of which Mr. Blacker and Mr. I^oud are the 
present owners. 

Mr. Blacker has not only been engaged in 
lumber enterprises, but has found time to de- 
vote himself to business matters of a general 
character, and has given considerable atten- 
tion to politics. He is a member of the direc- 
torate of several local institutions, in all of 
which he takes an active interest. Among 
them are the Manistee, East Lake & Filer 
City Eailway, the Manistee County Savings 
Bank, and the First I^ational Bank of Mani- 




ROBERT R. BLACKER. 

stee, of which he was one of the organizers and 
a director, the A. IL Lyman Wholesale Drug 
Company, and the Manistee water works. In 
the spring of 1882 he was elected alderman, 
and in November of the same year he was 
elected a member of the State Legislature, 
and re-elected in 1884, serving through the 
sessions of 1883 and 1885. Beginning Avith 
the year 1888 he held the ofiice of Maj^or of 
Manistee for four successive terms. He was 
a delegate to the Democratic national conven- 
tion of 1884, an alternate to the convention of 
1892, and a delegate at large to the Chicago 
convention of 1896. He was appointed to the 
office of Secretary of State by Gov. Winans 
Dec. 24, 1891, upon the resignation of the 
then incumbent, and administered the office 
with equal credit to himself and to his party 
until the close of the term, Dec. 31, 1892. 
Politically he has always been a Democrat. 

Mr. Blacker has been twice married, but 
has no children. His first wife died in 1896. 
His second marriage was on Feb. 22, 1900, to 
Miss Nellie Oanfield, daughter of the late 
John Canfield, of Manistee. 



^^mi 



MEIf OF PROGEESS. 



AUGUST SPIES. 



SPIES • AUGUST. The city of Menominee 
is fortunate in numbering among its citizens 
Mr. August Spies. Born in Hesse-Darmstadt^ 
Germany, October 23, 1836, he came with 
parents to America in 1850, they settling in 
Winnebago county, Wisconsin, where they 
made for themselves a home and reared their 
family of eight children. The son, August, 
improved such educational advantages as were 
obtainable in his native place and in his 
western home, and at the age of thirteen en- 
tered upon work as a farm hand, and worked 
on a farm and in a nursery until he was twenty 
years old. He then rented a farm for two 
years, after which, with his savings, he bought 
160 acres of land in Winnebago county, which 
by energy and industry he developed into a 
farm, on which he resided for eight years, ex- 
cept during one year of the time, which he 
passed at an advanced school at Appleton, 
Wis. When thirty years old he rented his 
farm and went to Menominee, where he has 
since resided. For twelve years after locating 
there he conducted a meat market and general 
supply store, during which opportunities for 
adding to his legitimate gains did not escape 
his clear business perceptions. He purchased 
tracts of timber lands as occasion presented, a 
class of deal in which there is an ample for- 
tune for the judicious operator, and thus be- 
came one of the lumber magnates of the Up- 
per Peninsula. In 1880, in company with 
Henry Martin, the two built the lumber mill 
known as the Spies Mill, which Mr. Spies has 
operated alone for many years past. He was 
one of the organizers of the Stephenson Bank- 



ing Company, of Marinette, Wisconsin, which 
eventually became a national bank, of which 
he was one of the directors. He helped organ- 
ize the First National Bank of Menominee, of 
which he is vice-president. He is president 
of the Marinette & Menominee Paper Com- 
pany, of the Menominee Electric Light, Kail- 
way & Power Company, and of the August 
Spies Lumber Company of Menominee, and 
a director of the Gruhl Sash & Door Manu- 
facturing Company, of Milwaukee, Wis. Is 
also chairman of the board of trustees of the 
Menominee cemetery. Mr. Spies is a Repub- 
lican in politics, and was four years a mem- 
ber of the city council, and was for a num- 
ber of years a member of the local school 
board, and its treasurer. He built the first 
brick block in Menominee, and his was the 
first brick residence there. Mr. Spies' relig- 
ious connection is Presbyterian. Miss Ger- 
trude Prince, a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, 
became Mrs. Spies at Fond du Lac, Wis., in 
1860. She came with her parents to Onon- 
daga county, 'New York, in 1850. Her educa- 
tion was received in her native country and in 
the high school at Horicon, Wis. Nine chil- 
dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Spies : 
Adella, wife of Hon. Frank W. Humphrey, 
a banker at Sharvano, Wis. ; Charles A., real 
estate dealer, Menominee; Frank A., con- 
nected with his father's lumber interests ; Ame- 
lie, wife of David Bothwell, lumberman, of 
Menominee; Harriet, wife of Dr. Charles 
EUwood, of Menominee ; Alice, wife of Geo. 
Peaks, an attorney of Chicago; Elizabeth, Nel- 
lie and Arthur, at home. 



HISTOKIOAL SEET€HES, 



479 



WHITE, WILLIAM H. William H. 
White was born at Owen Sound, Ont., April 
1 2, 1859. His father, William White, wa^ of 
Scotch-Irish descent. He was a cattle buyer 
and shipper, and combined these interests with 
farming. His mother, ArabeU Clement, was 
of Scotch-Irish descent. His education was 
received in the public schools near Owen 
Sound. 

When 1'6 years of age, he became actively 
engaged in assisting in his father's business. 
When about 20 years old, he moved to Essex, 
Ont., and bought a small piece of timber land. 
He lumbered the timber to the adjoining mills, 
and some of the best was shipped to Liverpool. 
He accumulated a little out of this enterprise, 
and entered into a contract to get out stave- 
bolts for William Edgar of Hamilton, Ont. 
Lack of snow and frequent rains made the 
work very expensive, as the product had to be 
delivered, and ended in a loss. 

He then engaged as woods foreman with 
John Miline in the winter of '79 and '80. In 
the spring he was made superintendent of one 
of his mills. He then became associated in the 
same capacity with John Monroe & Co., at 
Maid Stone, in the fall. In 1881 he was sent 
to South Arm, Mich., to take charge of the 
interests of the company* In the fall of 1882 
the company failed. He was then employed 
by the assignee to help close up the company's 
affairs. 

In 1883 Mr. White moved to Boyne City, 
which has since been his place of residence. 
He formed a co-partnership with E. E. New- 
ville. They rented a small mill and began 
the manufacture of broom handles. When 
they started in the stock was worth $14 per 
thousand, but when they got ready to market 
it had fallen to $8 per thousand, making a 
loss of $2 per thousand handles. They went 
out of this business $800 in debt. 

In the fall of 1884 Mr. White went to De- 
troit and secured a contract to supply hard- 
wood lumber, but had no money to start with. 
Finally made arrangements with C. J. Lloyd 
to furnish the capital at a royalty of $2.00 per 
thousand on all the lumber cut. He opened a 
mill and sawed six hundred thousand feet. 
Made enough to pay off the old debt and pay 
Lloyd in full except $85.00. Mr. Newville 
retired from the business. The next year's 
contract gave Mr. White a margin of $1,200. 
He then took a partner, Mr. E. E. Perkins, 
and this year realized a profit of $3,000, of 
which he received $1,500 on a cut of 2,700,000 
feet. He then bought out Mr. Perkins and 




WILLIAM H. WHITE. 

the next year cleared $4,000. He then bought 
the old Sheboygan mills at Boyne City and 
secured a two years' contract with the Cheboy- 
gan Chair Co., of Sheboygan, Wis. In two 
years he was out of debt and had paid for the 
mill and timber. 

Subsequently his three brothers, James, 
George and Thomas, associated with him im- 
der the present name of the firm. In 1900 
they cut 40,000,000 feet. 

In 1893 the B. C. & S. E. E. E. Co. was or- 
ganized and the railroad built from Boyne 
City to Boyne Falls, connecting with the G. 
E. & I. E. E. at Boyne Falls. It was opened 
for business on the 28th day of August. Mr. 
White owns and operates the above road, now 
about 40 miles long. He is also interested in 
mercantile and other manufacturing enter- 
prises, but mostly in lumbering. 

He is third vice-president of the National 
Hardwood Association, elected at the national 
convention held in Cincinnati in May, 1900. 
Mr. White is a Eepublican in politics, but has 
never held office. He is a member of the 
Oddfellows order. 

He was married in 1889 to Miss Abigal 
Wigle of Kingsville, Ont. She died in 1890, 
leaving two children. In 1899 he was married 
to Miss Mary Louis Eeader of Lake Oity. 

The railroad, lumber and merchandising 
business of which he has charge is maWng a 
steady growth each year. His haiedwood Inibr 
ber interest is one of the lai^st in the stftte* 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




QERRIT J. KOLLEN. 

KOLLEN, GEERIT J. Dr. KoUen in a 
native of the Netherlands, having been born 
August 9, 1843. After the death of his 
father, his mother in 1851 moved to this coun- 
trjj settling on a farm in Allegan county, 
this state, Avhere she still lives at the advanced 
age of 97 years. The local schools and a 
course in the graded schools at Allegan pre- 
pared him for admission to Hope College at 
Holland, which he entered in 1862, and from 
which he graduated in 1868. Like many 
another young man, his expenses were met by 
work during vacations, sometimes as farm- 
hand and at other times at mechanical labor. 
After leaving college he taught a public 
school at Overisel, and was otherwise em- 
ployed in teaching. In 1871 he was tendered 
the position of assistant professor of mathe- 
matics at Hope College, which position he 
accepted and filled until 1878, when he Avas 
appointed professor of pure and applied math- 
ematics in the same institution. In 1885 he 
was made professor of political economy, and 
in 1898 was elected president of the college, 
which position he still holds. When Dr. 
KoUen became a student at Hope College, in 
1862, the faculty consisted of one professor 



and two assistants, while its catalogue con- 
tained the names of only about forty students. 
The college today has a faculty of thirteen 
professors and nearly two hundred students. 
Much of the prosperity of the. college, espe- 
cially in a financial way, is due to the efforts 
of Dr. Kollen. In 1892 he went east and 
raised a fund of $40,000, with which the 
present beautiful library building was erected, 
and at the same time secured a valuable pri- 
vate library, consisting of 8,000 volumes. In 
1897-8, on a further mission to the east, he 
secured the sum of $100,000 as an endow- 
ment fund for the college. His work in the 
college and otherwise in its behalf Avas recog- 
nized by the Board of Trustees of Rutgeii 
College, New Brunswick, N. J., by whom, in 
1894, the honorary degree of LL. 1). was 
conferred upon him. 

Hope College is the educational center in 
Michigan of the Beforiiied Church in Amer- 
ica, sometimes called the Dutch Reformed 
Church. In its doctrine and polity it differs 
but little from that of the Presbyterian de- 
nomination. Dr. Kollen is an elder in the 
Reformed Church, and has held many im- 
portant representative positions in its coun- 
sels, especially as delegate at dift'erent times 
to the General Synods, and Avas a delegate 
from Michigan to the International Pan- 
Presbyterian Alliance, which met at Wash- 
ington in 1899. 

Dr. Kollen does not confine his labors to 
educational and ecclesiastical matters, but in- 
terests himself as well in the current affairs 
of life. He was one of the sixteen citizens of 
Holland who organized the Holland Improve- 
ment Company, the purpose of Avhich was to 
induce manufacturers to locate there. The 
influence of the movement is seen in the fact 
that the city of Holland now takes front rank 
as a manufacturing center in western Michi- 
gan. Dr. Kollen is a director in the State 
Bank of Holland, and has been for a number 
of years a member of the local School Board. 
Though a Republican in politics, he is not a 
politician. In 1879 Miss Mary W. Van 
Raalte, daughter of Rev. A. C. Van Raalte, 
the founder of the Holland colony of which 
the city of Holland is the center, became Mrs. 
Kollen. They have one daughter, Estelle 
Marie, a student at Hope College. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



CHAMBERLAIN, GEORGE LAFAY- 
ETTE, M. D. Dr. Chamberlain is the pres- 
ent medical superintendent of the Upper 
Peninsula for the Insane, at ]^I"ewberry. He 
comes to Michigan from Wisconsin, having 
been bom at Eureka, Wis., July 14, 1869, 
where his father, John H. Chamberlain, was 
a furniture dealer. The Chamberlains mi- 
grated from Bangor, Maine, to Wisconsin. 
His mother, Mary Loope, Avas of a family of 
professional men (physicians), so that he may 
be said to have inherited an aptness for the 
profession which he has chosen. He attended 
the public schools of Eureka until he was 14 
years old, when he went to live with his 
grandfather. Dr. R. A. Loope, at Black Creek, 
Wis., where he combined medical reading 
with his ordinary school studies for two or 
three years, when he became clerk in a drug 
store, without salary, in order to learn phar- 
macy. At the age of 18 he started out for 
himself and went to Bessemer, Mich., with 
his uncle, Dr. G. L. Loope, and became a 
nurse in the Gogebic Hospital, earning $25 
per month, including subsistence. The Go- 
gebic Hospital was owned by Dr. Loope 
at that time. In the fall of 1888 he entered 
as a student at Rush Medical College in Chi- 
cago, but on the ensuing vacation he returned 
to the hospital at Bessemer, as house physi- 
cian. He thus alternated his time between 
scientific study and hospital work, until he 
received his degree as Doctor of Medicine in 
March, 1891, his pay for hospital services 
partly covering his college expenses during 
the time. His scientific education had thus 
a completeness such as is best achieved by the 
concurrence of both theory and practice. 
During the summer of 1891 he relieved Dr. 
Powers, the physician at the Montreal Mine, 
near Hurley, Wis., during the latter's sum- 
mer vacation and then opened an office at the 
prospective mining town of Upson, Wis. 
After a practice there of eighteen months, the 
mines were abandoned and the inhabitants 
moved to other localities. Dr. Chamberlain 
then became a member of the staff at Gogebic 




GEORGE LAFAYETTE CHAMBERLAIN, M. D. 

Hospital at Bessemer, where he remained 
until the summer of 1893, when, owing to 
the depression in the iron industry and the 
closing of the mines, the entire medical staff 
was temporarily discharged. Early in the 
year 1894 he opened an office at Trout Creek, 
Mich., a small lumbering town, where he 
continued in practice until June, 1895, when 
he went to Chicago and took a post-graduate 
course at Eush Medical College in pathology, 
surgery and nervous diseases. While there 
he was tendered and accepted the position of 
assistant medical superintendent of the 
Upper Peninsula Hospital for the Insane at 
Newberry. Upon the resignation of the then 
medical superintendent. Dr. Samuel Bell, Dr. 
Chamberlain was appointed (April 1, 1899) 
to the position thus made vacant. 

Dr. Chamberlain is a member of the Amer- 
ican Medical Association and of the State and 
Upper Peninsula Medical Societies. He i8 a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, including 
the Knights Templar Commandery at Satilt 
Ste. Marie, Ahmed Temple at Marquette, and 
the Consistory at Detroit, and is also a mem- 
ber of the order of Elks at Marquette. He is 
unmarried. 



.IS 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




DANIEL E. SOPER. 

SOPEE, DANIEL E. Mr. Soper is one 
of those who, beginning life in orphanage 
and poverty, has achieved business promi- 
nence and comparative independence by his 
own energy and industry. Born at Saratoga 
Springs, N. Y., June 3, 1843, his father died 
in January following, and the widowed mother 
was left with three children. When Daniel 
was six years old, his mother removed to 
Oneida county, N. Y., and placed him in the 
care of a farmer. In 1854 the mother brought 
her little family to Michigan and located in 
Lenawee county. Here Daniel obtained em- 
ployment in a woolen factory, where he 
worked twelve hours per day and attended a 
night school. When the war broke out he 
immediately announced his intention to enlist 
in the first Michigan regiment that was sent 
to the front, but yielded to the pleadings of 
his mother and returned to his work. He 
subsequently enlisted in the Fourth Kegiment 
but being under age, his mother interposed 
her maternal authority and forbade his ac- 
ceptance by the mustering officer. He then 
went to Hillsdale to commence life for him- 
self, and arrived at that village the possessor 
of twenty-five cents. He worked in a dye 



house until his cash capital had swelled to two 
dollars, when feeling that he was destined for 
commercial life rather than as a simple em- 
ploye, he acted upon the poet's suggestion 
that ^^there is a tide in the affairs of man, 
which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.'' 
The war had created an eager demand for 
newspapers and young Soper, estimating the 
market and the probable returns, was the first 
of the genus that the then little town of Hills- 
dale had known. From a street vendor of 
news, his enterprise developed into a news 
depot, which proved profitable. In 1865 he 
married Mary A. Howell, a daughter of Hon. 
Wm. T. Howell, a pioneer of the state aiid a 
prominent Democratic politician of southern 
Michigan. Mr. Howell has been a member 
of both houses of the State Legislature, was 
president pro tern, of the Senate in 1845, and 
was one of the Presidential Electors who cast 
the vote of the state for Gen. Lewis Cass for 
the Presidency in 1848, but had taken up his 
residence in Newaygo. Mr. Soper sold out 
his news business in Hillsdale and also re- 
moved to ISTewaygo, where he engaged in the 
drug business, subsequently, about 1876, en- 
gaging in the real estate and insurance busi- 
ness. Whether his marriage into a Demo- 
cratic family had anything to do in shaping 
his politics, is unessential, but he has always 
been a Democrat, having cast his first vote 
for George B. McClellan for President, in 
1864. He was on the Democratic Electoral 
ticket in 1884 and was appointed postmaster 
at Newaygo by President Cleveland. He 
has served as a member of the village 
council of Newaygo and also as a member of 
the school board. At the Democratic State 
Convention held at Grand Kapids, Sept. 10, 
1890, he was an aspirant for the nomination 
for Auditor-General, but gave way to George 
W. Stone, who received the nomination, and 
Mr. Soper was then given the nomination 
unanimously and by acclamation, for Secre- 
tary of State, and was elected with the rest of 
the Democratic ticket that year, headed by 
Gov. Winans, the only clean sweep the Demo- 
crats have made in the state since their defeat 
in 1854, scoring a plurality of between 3,000 
and 4,000 votes over the Kepublicans. 



HISTOEIOAL SKETCHES. 



m 



HAKVEY, DK. HAKRIE TRALEE. 
The Harvey family are of English descent 
and trace their lineage to the celebrated sur- 
geon of that name, who, in the time of 
Charles I., discovered and demonstrated the 
fact of the circulation of the Wood in the 
human system. The present Dr. Harvey was 
born at Holly, Michigan, February 4, 1867. 
His father, Charles David Harvey, died at 
Ann Arbor in 1882, his mother, Eliza L. 
Eisenbrey, being still living. The family re- 
moved to Ovid, Clinton county, where, at the 
age of nine years, he left school and went to 
work on a farm. He continued on the farm 
until 15 years of age, when he went to Battle 
Creek and obtained employment in the Sana- 
tarium. After a year of service there he 
went to Toledo and took up the study of den- 
tistry with Dr. L. T. Canfield, with whom he 
remained three years. He then took a two- 
year course in the Philadelphia Dental Col- 
lege, going from there to Detroit, where he 
practiced for a year. In 1889 he went to 
Battle Creek, his present residence, where he 
practiced his profession steadily and success- 
fully until January, 1900, since which time 
other business engagements (his connection 
with the Portland cement industry) have en- 
grossed most of his attention. Dr. Harvey 
has be6n devoted to his profession, and is the 
author of numerous papers on dental science 
and practice, eight of which he read before as 
many state dental societies in 1898. He was 
a delegate to the International Dental Con- 
gress held in coimection with the Paris Expo- 
sition in August, 1890. He is a member of 
the !N"ational Dental Association and of the 
Michigan and South Western Michigan As- 
sociations and an ex-member of the board of 
directors of the latter, and an honorary mem- 
ber of the !N"orthwestem Ohio Dental Asso- 
ciation, of Toledo. He was appointed by 
Gov. Pingree, April 1, 1899, a member of 
the State Board of Examiners in Dentistry, 
for three years^ and is a member of the Board 
of Public Works of Battle Creek, appointed 
in May, 1900, for five years. He was mar- 
ried in February, 1886, to Miss Annie Bell, 




DR. HARRIE TRALEE HARVEY. 

of Holly. They have one son, Raymond, 
aged 13 years. Dr. Harvey is secretary of 
the Monolith Portland Cement Co., Limited, 
organized in January, 1900, df which he was 
one of the promoters, with offices in New York 
city, Chicago, Bristol, Ind., and Battle Creek, 
the duties of which position demand most of 
his time and energy. This company has a 
large tract of fine marl lands at Bristol, where 
they are building a plant for the manufacture 
of Portland cement, with a daily capacity of 
3,000 barrels, working 340 days each year, 
which they expect to have in operation by 
April 1, 1901. The plant will have the latest 
equipment in every feature and will be run 
continuously, with no shutting down on ac- 
count of cold weather. It will be operated 
by electrical transmission generated from 
water-power, the company owning one of the 
largest dams in existence, being 660 feet long. 
Gen. James S. Clarkson, of New York, forai- 
erly chairman of the National Eeptiblican 
Committee and First Assistant Postmaster- 
General under President Harrison, is presi- 
dent of the company, with the following 
staff: Vice-president, L. 0. McCoy, Battle 
Creek; M. Henry Lane, Kalamazoo; treas- 
urer, George B. TompHns, Sturgis; secretary, 
Harrie T. Harvey; counsel, Burritt Hamil- 
ton; manager, "W*. 0. Paltner, the last three 
of Battle Creek. 



fii^l 



MEN UJb J:'KUUKii;»». 




M. HENRY LANE. 

LANE, M. HENEY, the president of the 
Michigan Buggy Co. at Kalamazoo, comes to 
his position by right of inheritance and suc- 
cession, through his early training. His 
father was a wagonmaker at Genoa, Cayuga 
county, and Trumansburg, N. Y., and with 
the purpose that the son should be associated 
with him in the business, he insisted that he 
should learn the business in all of its 
branches. He therefore began at the bot- 
tom, working successively in the paint, black- 
smithing and wood shops, also accompanying 
his father in the buying and selecting of lum- 
ber for the factory. In this last-named work 
the younger Lane manifested a special inter- 
est, and a marked aptness, which served him 
to good purpose at a later time. When 21 
years of age, he struck out for himself, secur- 
ing first work as a farmhand. In 1872 he 
came to Michigan, working as a farmhand in 
Calhoun and Allegan counties. Having saved 
about $500, he returned home in 1875, but 
soon entered the employ of a large carriage 
and wagon manufacturing company at Tru- 
mansburg, ]Sr. Y. While thus employed he 
was offered and accepted a place on the road 



with the Courtland Wagon Co., of Court- 
land, N. Y. His salary as traveling sales- 
man was $75 per month, but on account of his 
knowledge and experience in selecting and 
purchasing lumber, he Avas put in charge of 
the purchasing department instead, at $100 
per month. He severed his connection with 
this company January 1, 188J, and came to 
Kalamazoo, where he organized the Kalama- 
zoo Wagon Co. After two years he with- 
drew from this concern and organized the 
Michigan Buggy Co., capitalized at $100,000, 
in connection with F. B. Lay and Geo. T. 
Lay as co-corporators. The new company 
turned out 1,100 cutters and 800 carriages the 
first year, while their output in 1899 was 
14,000 vehicles. The Michigan Buggy Co. 
is considered one of the largest and most 
complete establishments of its kind in the 
United States. The Chicago branch at 341- 
345 Wabash avenue, was established in 1887, 
and the output of the factory goes to all parts 
of the country. As a business man, Mr. 
Lane is clear-headed, energetic and up-to-date 
and is known throughout the Union as a 
pusher in his line. 

Mr. Lane first saw the light at Genoa, N. 
Y., January 21, 1849. On his father's side 
he is of l^ew England extraction, tracing 
through his father, Wm. S. Lane, and grand- 
father, Peter Lane. His mother was Mary 
Smith, of Tomkins county, 'N. Y. Miss Ida 
Lay, daughter of George T. Lay, of Allegan, 
became Mrs. Lane in 1878. They have one 
child, a daughter. , 

Mr. Lane's energy and business ability 
have brought him a fair measure of material 
prosperity. He is an extensive owner of real 
estate in Kalamazoo, is president of the Belt 
Line Eailway Co. and a director in the Port- 
land Cement Co. and the Mutual Telephone 
Co., all of Kalamazoo, and a director in the 
American Cash Register Co., of Chicago and 
Kalamazoo, and the Comstock Manufactur- 
ing Co., of Comstock, Mich. Though a Re- 
publican in politics, he has never held politi- 
cal office. In 1892 he was appointed by Gov. 
Luce one of the three Michigan commission- 
ers to the Columbian Exhibition at Chicago, 
and served with distinction and credit to the 
state. He is a member of the ISTational Car- 
riage Builders' Association and was its vice- 
president for two years. He is also a mem- 
ber of the Michigan (Republican) Club, and 
the Elks. 



HISTOKIOAL SKETCHES. 



4«8 



VAN KLEECK, JAMES. Mr. Van 
Kleeck is a native of Michigan, having been 
born at Exeter, Monroe county, Sept. 26, 
1846. On his father's side he is of Dutch 
extraction, being descended from Baltus Van 
Kleeck, who came from Holland in 1610, set- 
tling in New York. His mother was Cather- 
ine McMannis, of a family who came from 
Ireland early in the present century. His 
father, Robert Van Kleeck, was born in Can- 
ada, to which the family had removed, but 
settled in Exeter in 1832. He, however, re- 
turned to Canada and took part in the so- 
called Patriot war, 1837-8, but returned to 
Exeter and made it his home. James Van 
Kleeck attended the local schools until 15 
years of age, when he entered the high school 
at Monroe, which he left at the age of 16, to 
enter the army, enlisting as a private in the 
17th Michigan Infantry. The regiment was 
hurried to the front, and at the battle of An- 
tietam young Van Kleeck was wounded by a 
rifle ball in his left side, which he still carries, 
and which sometimes causes him great pain. 
From the hospital he was discharged from the 
service because of physical disability, and 
came home to die, but lived through it, though 
eighteen months on crutches. He again en- 
tered the high school at Monroe, and after a 
year's study began reading law in the office 
of Baldwin & Rafter, of Monroe. In the 
fall of 1868 he entered the law department of 
the University, and graduated therefrom in 
June, 1870, and was admitted to the bar at 
Monroe. After a short experience at prac- 
tice there he removed to Midland City, and 
hung out his sign, his personal resources be- 
ing comprised in the sum total of four dollars. 
He had a client the first week, as the begin- 
ning of a successful career. He was city at- 
torney of Midland City two years, and prose- 
cuting attorney of Midland county three 
terms. In 1882 he was elected to represent 
the Midland district in the lower house of the 
State Legislature, serving on the two import- 
ant committees of judiciary and the State 
University. It was at this session (1883) 
that the protracted struggle over the election 




JAMES VAN KLEKCK. 

of a United States Senator occurred, finally 
resulting in the election of Hon. Thos. W. 
Palmer. In 1885 he removed to Bay City 
and formed a law partnership with George 
W. Mann. He was appointed Commissioner 
of Immigration by Gov. Alger in 1885, al- 
though the office was soon after abolished. 
In 1886 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney 
of Bay county and served one term. His 
intelligent interest in schools and the cause 
of education led to his election as a member 
of the Board of Education, of which he was 
four years a member, and its president two 
years. A Republican in politics, his position 
in the party indicated him as an eligible can- 
didate for Congress, for which he was nomi- 
nated in 1890, but being an off year he suf- 
fered defeat at the hands of his Democratic 
competitor, Hon. Thos. A. E. Weadock. He 
has served his party as member of the State 
Central Committee and of local coihmittees. 

Mr. Van Kleeck attends the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, is a Eoyal Arch Mason, a 
member of the Ordet of United Workmen, 
and of the G. A. R., Miss Juliette 0. Car- 
penter, daughter of Thos. F. Carpenter, a 
capitalist of Midland, became Mts. Van 
E:ieeck in 1872. Their children are Edith 
A., a graduate of the literary department of 
the University, James C. and Delia, $Si Bi 
home. 



MEN OF PROGEESS. 




HENRY MILLER MARVIN. 

MARVIN, HENRY MILLER. Henry 
M. Marvin, a prominent business man of 
Augusta, Kalamazoo county, is essentially a 
Michigan product, having been born in Bed- 
ford, Calhoun county, May 3, 1859. The 
Marvin family, as here represented, came 
originally from Massachusetts, the ancestors 
of Henry M., moving from the state to Erie 
county, N. Y., by ox teams, in the early days. 
The father of Henry M., Huntington M. 
Marvin, was born in Aurora, N. Y., Novem- 
ber 17, 1817, and came to Michigan in 1843, 
settling on a farm in Johnstown, Barry 
county, but moving to Bedford in 1855, 
where he built a flour mill, which he operated 
until 1877, when he removed to Augusta. 
Here he branched out in business on a larger 
scale, including milling, banking and real 
estate, continuing actively in touch with his 
several ventures until his death, October ^3, 
1896. While in Barry county (1844) he 
operated the first threshing machine in that 
part of the state, run by horse-power, which 



was then the only motor. The mother of the 
present Mr. Marvin was Lucinda E. Riley, 
the daughter of Elijah Riley, of Elba, Gene- 
see county, N. Y., born December 31, 1825, 
and still living in good health in Augusta. 
The parents were married in 1844. 

Henry Miller Marvin received his early 
education in the local schools and afterwards 
attended Olivet College for two years, return- 
ing home in 1876, and after a year in the 
house at Bedford, he removed with his par- 
ents to Augusta. He at once became associ- 
ated with his father in his business enter- 
prises, they buying a mill site and erecting a 
flour mill thereon. This they operated to- 
gether until 1880, when the father estab- 
lished a bank, to which he gave his personal 
attention until the time of his death, the son 
attending to the milling branch of the busi- 
ness. Upon the death of his father, Mr. Mar- 
vin succeeded to the management of all the 
business interests. He is the only grain ship- 
per in Augusta, his grain shipments mostly 
going to the Toledo market, while his flour 
product goes to New England. He ranks 
with the pioneer grain dealers and flour man- 
ufacturers of Kalamazoo county. He is 
banker, miller, grain buyer, farmer and real 
estate dealer, having business interests at Bat- 
tle Creek as well as at Augusta. He is a 
Democrat in politics, but has held no political 
office. He is a member of the order of Elks. 
Mr. Marvin has been twice married, his 
first wife having been Miss Florence Cooper, 
daughter of George Cooper, of Fostoria, O., 
who died May 15, 1885. Their three chil- 
dren are: Harry C, Bessie and Fred, aged 
respectively 19, 18 and 16, all at home. Miss 
Jennie 0. Dodge, daughter of Martin Dodge, 
of Montague, Mich., became Mrs. Marvin, 
February 16, 1894. There is one child by 
this marriage. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES, 



487 



WILLIAMS, FITCH REED. Mr. Will- 
iams is of mixed Dutch and Welsh ancestry, 
through his father, John Williams, and his 
mother, Bulla Calkins, who were respectively 
of Dutch and Welsh extraction, though re- 
motely. He was born in Dutchess county, 
N. Y., December 18, 1834, his parents re- 
moving to Sharon, Conn., in his infancy, and 
in 1845 to Sharon, Washtenaw county, Mich. 
The family later removed to Albion, Mich., 
where the son attended Albion Seminary 
(now Albion College), and in 1854 entered 
the University, from which he graduated in 
1858. He was appointed to and held the 
chair of Latin and Greek in Albion College 
for two years, and afterwards assisted in the 
chair of Latin in the University for a like 
term. The death of his father at Albion com- 
pelled him to return there to care for the 
family and estate, where he remained six 
years. While there, in connection with a 
brother, he established a drug and book store, 
but sold his interest in 1867 to resume his 
law studies, which had been pursued while 
teaching at the University. He was admitted 
to the bar at Marshall in 1868 and after a 
successful practice of two years at Albion he 
went to Elk Eapids to have charge of the ex- 
tensive interests of the then well-known firm 
of Dexter & Noble, at that place. He has 
practised law continuously in that part of the 
state for thirty years, most of the time alone. 
In the seventies he was associated with J. A. 
Parkinson, now of Jackson, Mich., under the 
firm name of Williams & Parkinson, and 
afterwards for a short time with Charles T. 
Hickox, now of Milwaukee, Wis. In 1870 
Elk Rapids was the county seat of a district 
which has since been divided into the four 
counties of Antrim, Kalkaska, Otsego and 
Crawford. Erom 1870 to 1876 Mr. Williams 
served as prosecuting attorney and prosecuted 
fifty cases for infraction of the liquor laws, 
securing convictions in forty-nine of them. 
He was elected to the State Senate in 1876 
and in that body was a recognized authority 
on the subject of taxation, a subject on which 
he had bestowed special study. 

Mr. Williams may be justly characterized 
in every sense as a leading citizen of northern 
Michigan, having contributed largely to its 
material development, and by his broad cul- 
ture also to its social and moral advancement. 
And in this connection it would be unjust to 
omit mention of Mrs. Williams, formerly 
Miss Elizabeth Jane Roberts, of Ogden, Mon- 
roe county, N. Y., who became Mrs. Williams 
August 12, 1862. An acquaintance formed at 
Albion College led to the union. She also re- 




FITCH REED WILLIAMS. 



ceived a liberal education at Albion College, 
Mich., and Ingham University, N. Y., and 
has ever been admired not only for her domes- 
tic and social qualities, but also her literary 
and artistic attainments. One son. Fitch Rob- 
erts Williams, is now a law student at the 
University. Mr. Williams is a member of 
the Masonic fraternity and of the Alpha Delta 
Phi (literary) of Michigan University. He 
is a Republican in politics and attended with 
his father at the formation of the party, 
^^under the oaks,'^ at Jackson, in 1854. He 
is vice-president of and general counsel for 
the Elk Rapids Portland Cement Co., attor- 
ney for the Elk Rapids Iron Co., and many 
other corporations and firms in northern 
Michigan, and also attorney for and one of 
the organizing stockholders and directors of 
the Elk Rapids Savings Bank. The Elk 
Rapids Portland Cement Co. owes its exist- 
ence to his efforts. Securing options on 350 
acres of marl land and a large bed of ideal day 
suitable for such purposes, he organized the 
company, which is capitalized at $400,000, 
Jackson and other Michigan cities furnishing 
many of the principal shareholders, together 
with Elk Rapids business men. The com- 
pany is. now building a plant on the shore of 
Lake Michigan, in Elk Rapids, which will be 
completed before 1901, capable of turning 
out 600 barrels on the start, designed soon to 
be expanded to 1,000 barrels per day, and 
which will give employment to 200 or more 
men. 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 




ROBERT SMITH, 

SMITH, KOBEKT. Kobert Smith, presi- 
dent and manager of The Kobert Smith 
Printing Company, the state printers, of Lan- 
sing, Michigan, was born April 13, 1843, in 
Syracuse, New York. His father, Thomas 
Smith, came to this country from Ireland in 
1818. His mother's maiden name was Judith 
Morton. When he was four years of age his 
parents removed to a farm near Syracuse, and 
when the boy reached the proper age he was 
sent to the district school, where his education 
continued until he reached his thirteenth 
year, when he was apprenticed for three years 
in the office of the Syracuse Standard, to learn 
the trade of a printer. After two years as 
"deviF' at a salary of $1.50 a week, he quit 
the job and for twelve months travelled about 
the country as a two-thirds journeyman 
printer. He then got "cases" on the Roches- 
ter Express, where he worked alongside of 
John Mc Vicar, ex-member of the Board of 
Public Works in Detroit. 

In the winter of 1863-4, the result of a 
strike in the Rochester Express, Mr. Smith 
removed to Lansing, Mich., where he secured 
a situation with John A. Kerr & Co., then 
state printers and binders. In the spring fol- 
lowing, with Henry S. Hilton, he bought the 
Clinton Republican, published at St. Johns, 
and they made the venture a success from the 
start. In 1883 they started the Globe, at 
Flint, Mich., and were the first in the country 
to adopt the so-called "patent insides,^' and 
they used the inside pages of the Globe, for 



the Clinton Republican. In 1870 the Globe 
was sold to A. L. Aldrich, of St. Joseph, 
Mich., after which Messrs. Smith & Hilton 
purchased a two-thirds interest in the Jackson 
Daily Citizen of Hon. James O'Donnell, who 
retained a one-third interest. In about eight 
months afterward, however, Mr. O'Donnell 
became the sole owner again of the Citizen, 
Mr. Smith returning to St. Johns. Some 
months later, owing to failing health, Mr. 
Smith removed to Minnesota, engaging in the 
hardware business at Taylor's Falls, in that 
state. He remained there some fifteen 
months, when he sold out. While looking for 
another and more satisfactory business open- 
ing, he concluded to return to Michigan, and 
subsequently purchased the Gratiot Journal, 
at Ithaca, during the Grant-Greeley cam- 
paign, that paper having threatened to change 
from a Republican to a Greeley organ. He 
at once enlarged the paper and made it un- 
compromisingly Republican, which it so re- 
mained until he sold it in 1 8 9 1 . AVhile under 
his charge the Gratiot Journal was recognized 
as the handsomest, typographically, and one of 
the ablest newspapers in the state. In 1899 
Mr. Smith secured the state printing and 
binding contract, after a stubborn struggle, 
and has since been identified with it. 

In 1896 the firms of Robert Smith & Com- 
pany, state printers and binders, and D. D. 
Thorp & Son, publishers of the State Repub- 
lican, were merged into one concern, under 
the name of The Robert Smith Printing 
Company, Robert Smith and H. S. Hilton 
owning the controlling interest. The house is 
still doing business under this name. 

Mr. Smith was postmaster during six of the 
years he spent in Ithaca, and served on the 
council and school board several terms. He 
is a Mason and belongs to Lansing Comman- 
dery, K. T., No. 25, and the Shrine of Saladin 
Temple, Grand Rapids. He is also an Elk 
and a K. of P. 

He was married to Miss Carrie H. Scatter- 
good, of St. Johns, Mich., Oct. 5, 1869, by 
whom he had one daughter, Maude, and two 
sons, Robert Jr., and Harry M. In April, 
1887, his wife died. He remained a widower 
until 1889, when he wedded Miss Henrietta 
Chapman, daughter of the late Judge W. H. 
Chapman, of Lansing. Que daughter, 
Frances, is the result of the union. 

Mr. Smith is in every sense a self-made 
man, having carved his way to his present 
position by force of character and indomitable 
will. He is a good hater and one of the 
stanchest friends on earth. He has ne^ner been 
an office-seeker. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



1^ 



MINER, HON. JOHN. Mr. Miner is of 
Irish descent. His father, Edward Miner, 
was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, and came 
to New York city about 1840. His mother, 
Mary Kern, was born in County Louth, Ire- 
land, and came to America in 1834, and the 
parents were married in New York in June, 
1847. John Miner, the subject of this sketch, 
was born in New York city, September 14, 
1849, from whence with his parents he came 
to Detroit in 1855, where he has ever since 
lived. He received his education in the pub- 
lic schools of this city of Detroit. When he 
left school he assisted in his father's business, 
that of a merchant tailor, in which business 
he was engaged for several years. In 1871 
he began reading law in the office of Levi 
Bishop, and was admitted to the bar in 1872, 
before Judge Jared Patchen, then presiding 
judge of the Wayne Circuit Court. He re- 
mained in Mr. Bishop's office until 1875, 
when he started in practice on his own ac- 
count. In 1877 he was elected to the office 
of police justice of the city of Detroit. It 
was certainly a responsible and difficult posi- 
tion in which to place a young man of but 
28 years, but his subsequent election to a 
second and third term, covering a continuous 
service of twelve years, demonstrated the wis- 
dom of the choice. In 1890 he was elected to 
the lower house of the legislature, and during 
his service in that capacity he was principally 
instrumental in amending the Metropolitan 
Police Law, by which the appointment of 
Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police of 
Detroit was placed in the hands of the mayor, 
instead of with the governor. Another meas- 
ure, however, and probably the most import- 
ant one of that session, of which he was the 
author, was known as the ^^Miner Law." This 
measure changed the method of choosing 
Presidential Electors, so that they were chosen 
by districts instead of by the state at large. 
It excited widespread discussion and interest, 
not only in Michigan but throughout the 
United States. In Michigan it was bitterly 
antagonized as being a mere partisan measure 
in the interest of the Democrats, which was 
made possible by the fact that the Democratic 




HON. JOHN MINER. 

party was then in control of the state adminis- 
tration. The measure was fought by the Ke- 
publicans through the state courts, and into 
the United States Supreme Court, where its 
constitutionality was finally completely iaf- 
firmed. The result was that at the election in 
1892 the Democrats elected five of the four- 
teen Presidential Electors, whereas under the 
other system (to which the Kepublicans re- 
turned when they came into power in 1893) 
the whole fourteen would have been Kepubli- 
can. In a close election this would have de- 
termined the result on Presidential election. 

Judge Miner was a candidate for mayor of 
Detroit in 1891 but with a divided party, Hon. 
Wm. G. Thompson being also a candidate 
upon the Democratic ticket. Mayor Pingree's 
election to a second term resulted. At the 
spring election in 1897 Judge Miner wa« 
again a candidate for police justice and the 
vote on the east side showed his old-time popu- 
larity, but the Kepublican ticket was success- 
ful except on mayor (a special election for that 
office), when owing to special causes Mr. May- 
bury was elected. He was again a candidate 
for the Legislature in 1898, but it was a bad 
year for the Democrats. For the past ten 
years he has given his attention to his law 
practice, making a specialty of probate pra<3- 
tice and private trusts. 



^IttS 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




ALEXANDER FORSYTH. 

FORSYTH, ALEXANDER. Michigan 
is indebted for much of its healthy blood to 
the neighboring province of Ontario, and Mr. 
Forsyth is of this class, he having been born in 
Middlesex county, Ontario, May 16, 1860. 
Leaving the district school at 12 years of age, 
he became a student in the high school at 
Petrolia and later at Sarnia, and at the age of 
17 he began his career as a teacher, his first 
care on receiving an income being to cancel 
some indebtedness incurred in acquiring his 
education. He taught school in Ontario for 
five years, starting in at $57 per month and 
working as a farm hand during the summer. 
He came to Michigan in 1882 and taught 
school at North Branch, Lapeer county. 
While there he engaged in the drug business, 
in which he invested all his savings, but the 
venture was a losing one, and in 188e^ tlie 
business was closed out, leaving him without 
a cent and with some liabilities. He resumed 
the profession of teaching and when his obli- 
gations had been discharged he opened an in- 
surance office at North Branch, which proved 
a success from the start. He had the agency 
for all the larger companies doing business in 
the United States and had a reliable clientele 



in the counties of Lapeer and Tuscola and the 
southern part of Sanilac. In 1890 he sold 
out the business and removed to Standish, the 
county seat of Arenac county. He here es- 
tablished an insurance office, the first in that 
county, having fifteen of the old-line com- 
panies, and had an extensive business in Are- 
nac and adjoining counties. Having been 
elected to the State Senate in 1896 and being 
unable to give his personal attention to the 
business during his necessary stay at the capi- 
tal, he sold a half interest in the business. In 
1894 a foreign insurance company insuring 
farm property withdrew from Arenac county 
and Mr. Forsyth organized the Home Mutual 
Insurance Co., being a farmer's company. 
He wrote some 300 risks the first year and to- 
day the company has about 2,500 members, 
and the policies in force aggregate insurance 
of about $2,000,000. Mr. Forsyth was elected 
secretary and treasurer of the company, which 
position he now holds. 

Politically, Mr. Forsyth was an indepen- 
dent up to 1892, since which time he has been 
a Populist and a Free Silver Democrat. He 
was elected to the State Senate from the 
Twenty-fourth district in 1896, under the 
political combination known as the Demo- 
cratic-People's-TJnion-Silver party, and won 
great applause in his successful fight against 
the school book trust for the adoption of uni- 
form and free text books. He was a dele- 
gate to the National Populist Convention at 
St. Louis, Mo., in 1896. His lodge connec- 
tions are Masonic, including the Auxiliary 
Eastern Star. Miss Henrietta Brooks, daugh- 
ter of Wm. Brooks, of Lambton, Ont., be- 
came Mrs. Forsyth in 1882. They have 
three children, Jennie, Annie and William. 

Mr. Forsyth is one of the solid farmers of 
Arenac county, and owns and operates a farm 
of 500 acres near Standish, and also own con- 
siderable real estate in the village, all acquired 
within the past ten years as the fruit of his 
enterprise and business tact. In 1897 he 
took up banking and reorganized the Arenac 
County Bank, which had previously failed, 
and after getting it on a sound basis, sold out 
his interest. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



49J 



GODFREY, MARSHALL HARTLEY. 

At present a member of the Board of Public 
Works of Detroit, Mr. Godfrey has passed a 
useful life in his native city, up to the age of 
55 years, both in business, social and official 
relations. He was born in Detroit, July 16, 
1845, his parents having been Jeremiah and 
Sophromia (Pierce) Godfrey. The Godfrey 
family were originally from the state of New 
York. Marshall H. attended the Detroit pub- 
lic schools, whose courses were much less ad- 
vanced then than now, and also attended an 
academy of which the Rev. Prof. Nutting was 
principal, located on what is known as Lodi 
Plains, some seven miles south of Ann Arbor, 
in Washtenaw county, from Avhich he gradu- 
ated in 1862, also taking a course in a com- 
mercial college in Detroit. He was then ap- 
prenticed to learn the trade of a painter, with 
the firm of Godfrey Dean & Co., of which his 
uncle, Joseph Godfrey, was the senior part- 
ner, serving his time of four years. The next 
seven years were passed as an employee and 
working at his trade. In 1866 he became a 
member of the firm, representing the business 
first established by his father in 1838. The 
history of this house is thus briefly noted: 
Jeremiah Godfrey, 1838-52; Joseph Godfrey, 
1852-74; Marshall H. Godfrey, 1866-99. Mr. 
Godfrey, with his business associates, did a 
flourishing and increasing business from year 
to year until the collapse of the Majestic 
Building Association, in which he was a stock- 
holder, in January, 1899, which forced him 
out of business. 

Mr. Godfrey served the public as a member 
of the Board of Water Commissioners five 
years, 1884-89, when he resigned and wa& 
four years a member of the Fire Commission. 
He was the general manager of the water 
works system fourteen months preceding his 
appointment to the Board of Public Works. 
He was the Democratic candidate for mayor in 
1893, but it was a bad year for Democrats. 
He has something of a record in the local 
volunteer militia, having been Regimental 
Color Sergeant of the Third Regiment, Michi- 




MARSHALL HARTLEY GODFREY. 

gan State Troops, and afterwards of the 
Third and Fourth Regiments and of the De- 
troit Battalion. He was aide on the staff of 
Gov. Begole two years, with the rank of 
colonel, and is now a member of the Old 
Guard and of the Veteran Corps of the De- 
troit Light Guard. Mr. Godfrey is a member 
and trustee of the Central Methodist Church 
of Detroit. He was made a Mason in Detroit 
Lodge, No. 2, and was one of the charter 
members of Palestine Lodge, No. 367, and 
has the Chapter, Knights Templar, Consistory 
and Moslem Temple Degrees. He has been 
for nearly seventeen years a member of the 
United States Master Painters' Association 
and was its president one year, and was presi- 
dent of the local association four years, and 
of the state association two yearff. 

Miss Marion Isadore Carrick, of Buffalo, 
N. Y., became Mrs. Godfrey, April 2, 1868. 
Mrs. Godfrey's father, John Carrick, was led 
to California by the gold fever in 1849, and 
died there. Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey have two 
sons, Marshall H., Jr., a graduate of the !N"a- 
tional Art Training School, South Kensing- 
ton, England, and David P., a graduate of the 
New York Trade School, who are today con- 
tinuing as decorators and painters the biisiness 
inaugurated by their grandfather in 1838. 
David F. served as ship painter on board the 
Yosemite, during the war with Spam. 



'■^■^ 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




CHARLES DURA NT JOSLYN. 

JOSLYJST, CHARLES DURANT. Mr. 

Joslyn is a native of Vermont (Waitfield), the 
son of Ezra O. and Eliza A. (Durant) Joslyn, 
born June 20, 1846. His father died at Wait- 
field, October 16, 1881, and his mother died 
September 1, 1846, when he was bnt a few 
months old. The Joslyn name is of Welsh 
origin and appears among those of the inhab- 
itants of Connecticut as early as 1637. One 
John Josselyn gained some notoriety in the 
early days as a historian and writer of travels, 
and in one of his books written previous to the 
time when the "Connecticut Settlement" be- 
came generally known, he made mention of 
such a spot in the new world, from which it 
is inferred that he is one of the founders of 
that settlement. The name is a familiar one 
in England, one of the name having at one 
time been Lord Mayor of London. Mr. Jos- 
lyn's great-great-grandfather was a soldier in 
the War of the Revolution, and supported 
General Washington at Valley Forge. Others 
oi his relatives (great uncles) were soldiers in 
the War of 1812. On his mother's side the 
family tree runs back in a direct line to Henry 
Leland, who was one of the pilgrim band that 



came over on the Mayflower, the name of 
Durant coming through his grandmother, 
Susan Leland, whose husband was of that 
name. 

Mr. Joslyn's education passed from the 
primary schools of his native town to the 
Vermont State JSTormal School, and Barrts 
Academy, from both of which he graduated 
in due course. In 1867 he entered Dart- 
mouth College at Hanover, N. H., but left 
there in 1869 to accept the position of Assis- 
tant Superintendent of the State Reform 
School at Waterbury, Vt. He there entered 
upon the study of law in the office of Gov. 
Paul Dillingham, of that place, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar before the Supreme Court 
of Vermont in 1874. He came at once to 
Detroit and entered upon a general civil prac- 
tice, which has been interrupted only by offi- 
cial duties with which he has been entrusted. 
He was assistant clerk of the Superior Court 
of Detroit, and was U. S. Consul at Windsor 
1890-93. His greater public service, how- 
ever, was as Assistant Corporation Counsel of 
Detroit, which position he held six years, 
1894-1900. As first assistant, the greater 
volume of the work of the office fell to Mr. 
Joslyn, the exacting duties of which were 
always discharged with promptness and with 
a clear perception of the legal aspects involved. 
He represented the city successfully in a num- 
ber of litigated cases and was counsel in the 
case of Pingree vs. Moreland, and the State 
vs. Sutton (the alleged military goods fraud 
case). Since his retirement from the office 
of Corporation Counsel in July last, Mr. Jos- 
lyn has resumed his private practice. 

Mr. Joslyn was first married at Waterbury, 
Vt., in 1873, to Miss Julia Atherton, of that 
place, who died in 1881, leaving three chil- 
dren, Max A., now a civil engineer, and Alice 
E. and Louise D., both at home. His second 
marriage was in 1883 to Mrs. Fannie Cooper, 
of Detroit. 

There is no better known gentleman in mu- 
nicipal and social circles in Detroit than 
^^Charlie'^ Joslyn. Of stature somewhat be- 
low the average, but with an ample breadth of 
chest and limb, he is brim full of good nature 
and of devotion to his duties and his friends. 
He is a Republican in politics, but politics has 
no place in his personal and business relations. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



49S 




HUGH P. STEWART. 



STEWAKT, HUGH P. Mr. Stewart is a 
native of Michigan, 'Ho the manor born/' and 
has demonstrated by a successful career that 
a prophet may have honor in his own country. 
He was born in Lockport township, St. Joseph 
county, July 6, 1856, and was reared in that 
vicinity. 

Mr. Stewart is of Scotch descent and has 
inherited many of the characteristics of that 
race. He received the advantages of home 
schools until the age of 17. When 19 years 
of age he entered the law office of Alfred 
Akey and afterwards that of Judge Melendy. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1878 and estab- 
lished himself in practice in Centreville, the 
county seat, where his practice has grown 
steadily year by year until it has biecome re- 



munerative and second to none in the county. 

Mr. Stewart is a stanch Republican in poli- 
tics, and served the county four years as Prose- 
cuting Attorney, 1889-92. He is vice-presi- 
dent of Wolf Bros. Bank of Centreville, a 
member of the firm of W. Denton & Co. 
(knitting mills), and director in the Centre- 
ville Electric Light & Water Co. 

He was married to Miss Anna Hasbrouck, 
of Centreville, in 1884, and they have two 
bright and interesting children. Mr. Stew- 
art is a prominent Mason, being a member of 
Three Rivers Commandery and Saladin Tem- 
ple, at Grand Rapids. 

Mr. Stewart has by pluck, perseverance and 
hard work won an enviable position in his 
chosen profession, and has the confidence and 
esteem of the community in which he lives. 



- — ^— - — ^^^3ls^ — ' 



IM 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




HON. PHILIP T. VAN ZILE. 

VAN ZILE, HON. PHILIP T. Strength 
of character is an attribute of the people of 
Holland and their descendants, a fact strik- 
ingly exemplified in the person of Judge 
Philip T. Van Zile, who is of that stock, his 
great grandfather, Isaac Van Zile, having 
come from the Netherlands and settled in 
New Jersey. He was born at Osceola, Tioga 
county, Pa., July 20, 1844, his father being 
a shoemaker, to which calling he early applied 
himself. His mother, however, had more am- 
bitious views for him, and he was prepared, 
for college at Union Academy, Knoxville, Pa., 
and entered Alfred Universitv, at Alfred 
Center, N. Y., from which he was graduated 
in 1862, having relied largely upon his own 
exertions to pay his expenses during his col- 
lege course. The Civil War was then at high 
tide, and unable to resist the impulse to have 
a hand in it, young Van Zile enlisted in Bat- 
tery E, First Ohio Artillery, in which he 
served to the close of the war. Upon his honor- 
able discharge in 1865, he entered the Law 
Department of the University at Ann Arbor, 
graduating therefrom in 1867. He settled in 
Charlotte and soon secured a good practice. He 
was elected Prosecuting Attorney in 1868 and 



re-elected in 1870. In 1875, yielding to a 
strong pressure by members of the bar and 
others, he accepted a nomination for Judge 
of the Circuit Court, and was elected, sup- 
ported not only by his own party but largely 
by the opposition. While in the middle of 
his. term. Judge Isaac P. Christiancy, of the 
Supreme Court, who had known Judge Van 
Zile personally as well as officially, and who 
knew and appreciated the material of which 
he is made, was elected to the United States 
Senate. At that time a vigorous administra- 
tion of the Federal laws was demanded in the 
Territory of Utah, and Judge Christiancy 
recommended Judge Van Zile for appoint- 
ment as United States District Attorney there. 
After twice declining the appointment he 
finally accepted upon the urgent desire as well 
of Judge Christiancy as of President Hayes. 
It was perhaps here that the record of his life 
was made. During his six years of service he 
was instrumental in securing the enforcement 
of the laws against the corrupt and corrupting 
practices of the Mormon Church, and also 
aided in the modification of those laws, to 
render them more effective, eludge Van Zile 
resigned in 1884 and returned to Charlotte, 
and that year conducted the state campaign of 
his party, as chairman of the State Central 
Committee^ 

Judge Van Zile removed to Detroit in 1890 
and has filled the position of special lecturer 
before the Detroit College of Law, and Dean 
of the Faculty. He is also a member of the 
State Board of Examiners, before ^hom can- 
didates for admission to the bar are examined. 
He enjoys the degrees of Ph. D., and LL. D., 
conferred upon him by his Alma Mater, Al- 
fred University. He has been a member of 
the Masonic Fraternity since 1869 and is at 
present (1900) Right Eminent Grand Com- 
mander of the Knights Templar of Michigan. 
A Republican in politics, his natural energy 
and earnestness have always been exerted in 
behalf of his party. With a strong physique, 
a stature measuring over six feet, a resonant 
voice, a strikingly magnetic power, and an air 
of conviction in his intellectual efforts, he is 
a dangerous opponent at the bar and a power 
on the stump. Miss Lizzie A. Jones, daughter 
of Alexander Jones, a merchant of Rochester, 
Ohio, became Mrs. Van Zile in 1866. Two 
children, Hortense E. and Philip Donald, are 
the fruit of the marriage. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



McLaughlin, JAMES C. Mr. Mc- 
Laughlin is of Scotch parentage, his parents, 
David and Isabella (Campbell) McLaughlin, 
having come from Edinburgh in 1851, and 
settled in Beardstown, 111., Avhere James C. 
was bom January 26, 1858. Mr. McLaugh- 
lin is of the law firm of J. C. & J. A. Mc^ 
Laughlin, Muskegon, and comes to his profes- 
sion through inheritance as well as by study, 
the father, David McLaughlin, having been 
a leading attorney at Muskegon for many 
years. He was for twenty-five years a mem- 
ber of the Muskegon School Board and for 
nineteen years served as it secretary. The 
efficiency of the Muskegon public school sys- 
tem is regarded by the citizens as largely due 
to the untiring work of Mr. McLaughlin. 
James C. attended the public schools of the 
city and graduated from the High School in 
1876. After a preparatory course he entered 
the Literary Department of the University at 
Ann Arbor, in the fall of 1878, but did not 
graduate. He became an assistant to his 
father at Muskegon in his abstract office and 
was later employed in a local bank. In the 
summer of 1880 he went into the law office of 
Smith, Nims, Hoyt & Erwin, as office clerk 
and bookkeeper and read law as opportunity 
offered. He entered the Law Department of 
the University in the fall of 1881, graduating 
therefrom with the class of 1883. After 
graduating he entered the office of his father, 
where he remained until the death of the 
latter in 1891. After that date he practiced 
his profession alone until November, 1899, 
when the firm of J. C. & J. A. McLaughlin 
was formed, a cousin being the junior part- 
ner. Mr. McLaughlin succeeded to the ab- 
stract business of his father, which is con- 
ducted under the name of the Muskegon 




JAMES c. Mclaughlin. 

County Abstract Company. He is a director 
in the Enterprize Foundry Company and a 
director in and attorney for the Home Build- 
ing & Loan Association, both of Muskegon. 
He is a Kepublican in politics, and served as 
Prosecuting Attorney of Muskegon county 
four years, 1887r91. He has served at differ- 
ent times as chairman of the Republican 
county and city committees. In 1898 he had 
the support of his county delegation for a 
Congressional nomination and in 1900 was a 
candidate for the nomination for Auditor 
General, in which he had the support of many 
of the West Michigan delegates, but was de- 
feated by Perry F. Powers, of Cadillac. Mr. 
McLaughlin is unmarried but has extended 
society connections, being a member of the 
Masonic fraternity, the Foresters, Maccabees, 
and Elks (Muskegon, No. 274), of the latter 
of which he is Past Exalted Ruler. He is 
also a member of the Michigan (Republican) 
Club, Detroit. 



MEN OF PROdKESIS. 




HORATIO N. HOVBY. 

HO VEY, HOKATIO N". The subject of 
this sketch is a thorough Michigan man, hav- 
ing been born at Oxford, Oakland county, 
February 20, 1853, where his father, Horace 
Hovey, was a farmer. His grandf atlier, Phi- 
letus Hovey, was a contractor on the first 
Erie Canal. His mother, Hannah Scribner 
Hovey, was from Otisfield, Maine. The fam- 
ily moved to Michigan from the state of New 
York, May 18, 1828. He attended the local 
schools until 1867, when the family removed 
to Muskegon, where Mr. Hovey's active life 
began, and on whose prosperity and growth he 
has made his impress. He secured a position 
in the grocery store of S. H. Stevens at six 
dollars per week, and in the fall of 1868 was 
made delivery clerk in the Muskegon post- 
ofiice, under the then Postmaster E. W. Mer- 
rill, where he remained six years. After his 
first year, at the age of 17, he was made deputy 
postmaster. During his service in this con- 
nection he secured a lay-off and in the winter 
of 1872-3 attended a commercial college, tak- 



ing a thorough commercial and business 
course. In 1875, having saved about one 
thousand dollars, he engaged in the hardware 
business with Elias W. Merrill, under the firm 
name of Merrill & Hovey. Mr. Hovey then 
engaged in the lumbering business, and the 
firm of McCracken, Hovey & Company was 
formed. They built a sawmill and began 
sawing lumber and in 1883 the firm of Hovey 
& McCracken was formed for the purpose of 
buying timber lands and purchasing logs for 
the mill. This latter firm subsequently ab- 
sorbed the firm of McCracken, Hovey & Co., 
and for several years operated two sawmills at 
Muskegon, being one of the largest lumber 
manufacturing concerns there. Their lum- 
ber supply was exhausted in 1899 and the 
mills closed. They are large holders of farm- 
ing lands in Michigan and of pine lands in 
Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. 

Mr. Hovey has been self-supporting since 
he was 14 years of age and without help from 
any one in a financial way, has built up for 
himself a substantial fortune. He is presi- 
dent of the Muskegon Savings Bank, a director 
and vice-president of the National Lumber- 
men's Bank and is president of the Muskegon 
Chamber of Commerce. He is a Kepublican 
in politics but has never held any political 
office, though having served seven years as a 
member and treasurer of the Board of Educa- 
tion of Muskegon. He is a member of the 
Masonic Fraternity and of Muskegon Coni- 
^mandery. Knights Templar. Miss Nellie 
Merrill, daughter of Elias W. Merrill, here- 
tofore mentioned as having been early asso- 
ciated with Mr. Hovey in business, became 
Mrs. Hovey in 1874. Four children are the 
fruit of the marriage : Anna M., Eleanor, Sila 
M. and Willard M., the three last named being 
still attendants at school. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 
FRED. N. BONINE. 



497 



BONINE, FEED. N. Dr. Bonine traces 
his ancestry both on the paternal and maternal 
side, to the year 1600. One ancestor was an 
officer on George Washington's staff in the 
Kevolutionary War and the Bonines were 
also distantly related to Daniel Boone, the so- 
called first settler of Kentucky, and famous 
Indian fighter. 

Dr. Bonine's father. Dr. Evan el. Bonine, 
was for many years a prominent citizen and 
phyisician of Niles. He was appointed sur- 
geon of the Second Michigan Infantry when 
it was mustered into the service during the 
Civil War, remaining in the service until the 
close of the war in 1865, having been gradu- 
ally promoted to the position of division sur- 
geon of the Army of the Potomac. He filled 
many places of trust, including four terms in 
the House of Representatives and one term in 
the State Senate. In his religious leanings he 
was of the so-called Society of Friends, or 
Quakers, and the writer, who knew Dr. Bo- 
nine quite well, takes the liberty to say that 
he was one of those plain, blunt, honest, soul- 
ful men that are none too plentiful in the 
world. He died in 1892. His widow (mother 
of Dr. F. N.), formerly Eveline Beall, of Cen- 
tre ville, Ind., is still living in Niles. 

Dr. Fred. N. Bonine, upon leaving the local 
schools at Niles, went at once to Freiburg, 
Germany, where he took an academic course of 
four semesters. His early medical education 
received under his father's tutelage was con- 
tinued at the State University, from the medi- 
cal department of which he graduated in 
1886, after which he took post-graduate 
courses in London, Paris and Vienna. He 
then took an extended European trip, visiting 



the Holy Land and in fact nearly every corner 
of the habitable globe, combining pleasure 
with study. In 1888 he established practice 
in Mies, his native place (born October 21, 
1863), and has from the first enjoyed a flatter- 
ing degree of success, more particularly as an 
oculist, in which line he is widely knoVn as d 
specialist. He is now special pension exam- 
iner for the pension district in which Niles is 
situated and is division surgeon for the Miclii-' 
gan Central Eailroad. A Republican in poli- 
tics, his election as mayor in n Democratic 
city, in 1900, attests the estimation in which 
he is held by his fellow-townsmen. He has 
also served the city as alderman and city physi- 
cian. The doctor is an all-round athlete and 
holds the world's championship for 110 yards, 
eleven second, officially timed, Ann Arbor 
field day. May 22, 1886. In May, 1885, at 
^^Meeting of all Colleges," including Yale, 
Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, IT. 
of M., etc., held in New York city, he won the 
championship for 100 yards dash. In all, 
Dr. Bonine has won 275 first prizes in college 
athletic sports, including running, jumping, 
weight-throwing, etc. His lodge connections 
are Masonic, including all the degrees except 
the 33rd. Is a member of the Mystic Shrine, 
has been Eminent Commander of Mies Com- 
mandery, K. T., and is now High Priest of St. 
Joseph Valley Chapter (Royal Arch), and 
Grand Warder of the Grand Commandery of 
Michigan. Is also a member of the Macca- 
bees, Oddfellows and Royal Arcanum. Miss 
Viva M. Thomas, daughter of Drew Thomas, 
of Newark, 'N, J., became Mrs. Bonine (mar- 
ried at Mies) July 28, 1886. A daughter, 
Natalie, aged 10 years, is their only child. 



m 



MEN OF PROGKESS. 




FREDERICK A. NIMS. 

NIMS, FREDERICK A. Mr. Nims has 
been for a full quarter of a century a member 
of the law firm of Smith, Nims, Hoyt & Er- 
win, of Muskegon. His parents, Dr. Dwight 
B. and Mrs. Anna W. (White) JSTims, were 
descendants of a New England colonial an- 
cestry, and came from Madison county, New 
York, and settled in Michigan in 1835. The 
son, Frederick A., was born June 15, 1839. 
He passed from the district schools to a pre- 
paratory college course at the then Wesleyan 
Seminary (now Albion College), at Albion, 
and in 1853 entered Hobart College, at Ge- 
neva, N. Y. He pursued the classical course 
here for three years, when he was compelled 
to abandon his studies by a threatened failure 
of eyesight. He left college and remitted 
all study and literary pursuits for two years, 
when in 1858, he entered upon the study of 
law in the office of Withey & Gray, of Grand 
Rapids and was admitted to the bar in 1860. 
He at once formed a partnership with Col. 
Andrew T. McReynolds, which was inter- 
rupted a year later by the advent of the war. 



Col. McReynolds accepting a position in the 
army, Mr. Nims also receiving a commission 
as second lieutenant and being subsequently 
promoted to first lieutenant. He was mus- 
tered out in 1864 on account of expiration of 
term of service. He returned to Grand Rap- 
ids, where he remained for a year seeking re- 
covery of health, and in 1865 established him- 
self in practice in Muskegon. In 1867 he 
formed a partnership with Francis Smith and 
George Gray, from which Mr. Gray retired 
in 1869. In 1870 D. D. Erwin became a 
member of the newly-formed firm of Smith, 
Nims & Erwin, under which style a successful 
business was prosecuted until 1874. H. J. 
Hoyt was then admitted to the firm, the firm 
becoming as named first foregoing, and has 
since so continued and has ranked among the 
foremost law firms of the state. Mr. Nims 
has been active in promoting the material 
interests of that section. The first railroad 
connecting Muskegon with the outside world, 
the Muskegon & Ferrysburg road, connecting 
with the Detroit & Milwaukee at Ferrysburg, 
was started in 1868, of which Mr. Nims was 
one of the incorporators, and the secretary and 
attorney of the company until the line was 
completed. He was for several years a direc- 
tor in the Muskegon National Bank and was 
one of the organizers and a director in the 
Merchants' National Bank of Muskegon, and 
was at one time president of the City Street 
Railway Company of that city. He has 
served for over twenty-four years as a member 
of the Board of Education and Avas for several 
years its president. He is a Democrat in 
politics but has never held any political office. 
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, of 
over thirty years' standing, including the 
Knights Templar, and of the Knights of 
Pythias, the G. A. R. and the Loyal Legion. 
Mr. Nims has been twice married, and has one 
daughter and six sons. 



HISTOKICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



WOOD, LUCIAN EBY. The Wood fam- 
ily are of English descent, the first American 
representative of the family having settled in 
Vermont at an early day. The grandfather, 
Lyman E., moved from Vermont to New 
York and thence to Michigan in the thirties, 
first settling at Edwardsburg, Cass county, 
and then going to St. Joseph county, where he 
became interested in a woolen mill. The 
parents of Lucian E., Jerome and Ganthia 
(Corey) Wood, were married in Flowerfield, 
St. Joseph county, Michigan, the mother 
being a daughter of Samuel Corey, who was a 
captain in the war of 1812. Their first Michi- 
gan home was in Kalamazoo county, moving 
thence in 1854 to Silver Creek, Cass county, 
and in 1867 to Howard township, Cass county, 
where the father died in 1889, the mother 
being still a resident there. 

Lucian E. Wood was born in Kalamazoo 
county, October 5, 1852, and received his edu- 
cation in the public schools of Cass county. 
He adopted the profession of a teacher when 
19 years old, first teaching for a year in the 
township of his residence (Howard) and the 
next year in Silver Creek. In 1872 he taught 
in Berrien county and in 1874 in Sunmerville 
and Pokagon, Cass county, devoting the inter- 
vals of time to farm work. From 1874 to 
1878 he was engaged in farming, and from 
1878 to 1881 was employed in the State Fish 
Hatchery at Crystal Springs Camp Ground, 
on Dowagiac creek, near Pokagon. He was 
then employed as assistant tie inspector for the 
Michigan Central Eailroad, under Inspector 
Clark Johnson, and on Mr. Johnson's death in 
1885 he succeeded him as chief tie inspector, 
so continuing until 1894. In the last named 
year he opened a real estate and insurance 
office in Mies, which is his present business 
and residence. He has always kept in touch 
with his farming interests, however, and still 
ranks as a farmer. He is also president of 
the Freeland. Manufacturing Company and a 
stockholder and director and treasurer in the 
Schwabac Manufacturing Company, both of 
Niles. Mr. Wood represented his district in 
the State Legislature in the session of 1895. 




LUCIAN ISBY WOOD. 

Mr. Wood has quite an extended record in 
the Masonic and other fraternal orders. He 
received the Master Mason's Degree in Paka- 
gon Lodge, No. 136, in 1873, and subse- 
quently served four years as Master of the 
Lodge. He became a Royal Arch Mason (St* 
Jo Valley, Chapter 'No.^2) in 1880, and a 
member of the Niles Command ery, Knights 
Templar, No. 12, in 1881, of which latter he 
is a Past Eminent Commander. He is a 
Scottish Rite Mason and member of DeWitt 
Clinton Consistory. He also became a mem- 
ber of Saladin Temple (Mystic Shrine) of 
Grand Rapids in 1890, and was made Grand 
Marshal in 1891, holding the position six 
years. He became a member of the Grand 
Lodge in 1894 and has held the following posi- 
tions therein: Grand Marshal, 1894; Junior 
Grand Deacon, 1895 ; Senior Grand Deacon, 
1896; Junior Grand Warden, 1897; Senior 
Grand Warden, 1898; Deputy Grand Master, 
1899; Grand Master, 1900.' Mr. Wood is 
also a member of the Knights of Pythias and 
of the Elks. 

Mr. Wood was married November 11, 1874, 
to Miss Alice L. Walter, daughter of Joseph 
Walter, of Pokagon. They have two sons, 
J. Walter, aged 22, electrical engineer, gradu- 
ate of the University, June 1900; Floyd J., 
aged 20, studying electrical engineering at the 
University. 



50O 



MEN OF PEOGRESS. 




ARCHIBALD B. DARRAGH. 

DARRAGH, ARCHIBALD B. This 
well-known representative citizen of Gratiot 
eounty is a native of Michigan^ having been 
born near Monroe December 23, 1840. His 
father was Benjamin F. Darragb, formerly of 
Chambersburg, Pa., his mother's name having 
been Catherine Bard. The Darragh and Bard 
families are of Irish and Scotch descent, set- 
tling in this country prior to the Revolutionary 
War, many of their names being found in the 
Colonial Army Register. 

Mr. Darragh's childhood years were passed 
on his father's farm and in attendance at the 
country school, and when 12 years of age he 
entered the public schools at Monroe, and was 
a schoolmate of the late Gen. George A. Cus- 
ter in a private academy at Monroe. Later he 
attended a private school managed by Levi T. 
GriiSn, now of Detroit. He entered the Lit- 
erary Department of the University in 1857, 
graduating therefrom in 1868. During va- 
cations he worked as a farm hand in and about 
Monroe county, to help out his expenses. In 
1859 went to Mississippi, where he taught 
school until May 16, 1861. The place then 
became a hot one for a northern man, and with 
the assistance of two southern college chums, 



Mr. Darragh made his way out of the county, 
to escape being forced into the Confederate 
service or suffering personal violence. In the 
fall of 1861 he again entered the University, 
and at the end of the college year in 1862 he 
enlisted as a private in Company H, 18th 
Michigan Infantry, but was transferred Jan- 
uary 1, 1863, to Company D, 9th Michigan 
Cavalry, and served until the close of the 
war, having been mustered out as Captain of 
Company D, August 9, 1865. He then went 
to Jackson and entered the law oifice of ex- 
Gov. Blair. ISTot relishing the law very much, 
he gave it up after six months' study and ac- 
cepted a position as teacher in the public 
schools at Jackson, and taught therein two 
years, when he was elected superintendent of 
schools of Jackson county, serving two years, 
1867-8. He then pursued a further law read- 
ing with Enoch Banker, of Jackson, until 
February, 1870, when he went to St. Louis 
and opened a private bank, which was backed 
up by capitalists of St. Johns. He acted as 
cashier and manager of this bank for fourteen 
years, when in 1884 it was closed out and 
merged as the First National Bank of St. 
Louis, Mr. Darragh remaining as cashier. In 
1894 this bank surrendered its charter and 
reorganized under the state law as the Gratiot 
County State Bank, of which Mr. Darragh is 
president. 

Mr. Darragh is a Republican in politics, was 
treasurer of Gratiot county, 1872-74, and was 
a member of the State Central Committee, 
1882-3, and representative in Legislature 
1882-84, and has served as chairman of the 
Gratiot County Committee during several 
campaigns. Was president of the village of 
St. Louis 1879-81 and after it became a city 
was its mayor 1893-4. He is at present a 
member of the Board of Control of the State 
Asylum for the Insane at Ionia. He was ap- 
pointed receiver of the Citizens' National 
Bank of Mies by the Controller of the Cur- 
rency, October 1, 1899. His society connec- 
tions are Masonic, including the Chapter De- 
grees, Oddfellows and Sigma Phi. Miss 
Annie P. Culbertson, daughter of Albert Cul- 
bertson, a paper manufacturer of Mononga- 
hela, Pa., became Mrs. Darragh, in 1865. 
They have no children. 



HISTOKIOAL SKETCHES, 



501 



SAVIEKS, LEMUEL. General Saviers, 
now a capitalist and farmer at St. Louis, Gra- 
tiot county, won his title of colonel by service 
in the Civil War, and that of general by ap- 
pointment as brigadier general on the staff of 
Gov. C. M. Croswell, where he served for four 
years as quartermaster-general, 1877-81. 

He was born in Antrim, Guernsey county, 
Ohio, December 12, 1840, and came with his 
parents to Tecumseh, Mich., in 1844. The 
son attended school winters until 14 years old, 
when he was apprenticed to J. & E. Rich- 
ardson, of Adrian, to learn the trade of a car- 
penter and millwright, receiving five dollars 
per month and board the first year, from which 
he saved forty dollars. 

He served his time and worked at his trade 
until twenty years of age, having been fore- 
man of a gang of carpenters when eighteen. 
He was a member of the Adrian Light Guard, 
an independent military company, at the time 
the Civil War broke out. He then enlisted as 
a private in Berdan's Sharp Shooters. He 
was appointed first sergeant of the company, 
was made second lieutenant Oct. 8th, 1861, 
captain Thirty-sixth Infantry Sept. 1st, 1862, 
major May 15th, 1863, lieutenant colonel 
March 30th, 1864, colonel September 12th, 
1864, and was discharged for disability on 
account of wounds Sept. 27th, 1864. 

General Saviers' military record is most 
creditable, as is shown by the following quo- 
tation from a letter written by General John 
C. Caldwell, at that time division commander : 

W^ashington, D. C, Oct. 18, 1864. 
Col. L. Saviers (at that time Major), served in 
the First Division, 2nd Army Corps, while that 
Division was under ray command. I always re- 
garded Col. Saviers as in every respect one of the 
best officers I had, and in the management of a 
skirmish line I have never seen his equal. Col. 
Saviers was always prompt, faithful and efficient 
in the discharge of his duties, and served most 
gallantly until severely wounded in the present 
campaign. 

JOHN C. CALDWELL, 
Brig. Gen. U. S. Vols. 

Somewhat anomalous is his record. Com- 
ing out of the service with the rank of colonel 
and having had command of regiments and 
brigades, he became a pupil in a local school 
with a class of young persons. Being unfitted 
at the time for active effort of any kind by 
reason of his wounds, he entered the Tecum- 
seh high school, and after graduating spent 
one year in teaching higher mathematics in the 
same school. In 1866 he married Miss Caro- 
line M. Bills, daughter of Hon. Perley Bills, 
af Tecumseh. In 1866-7 he was special agent 




LEMUEL SAVIERS. 

in connection with United States mail ser- 
vice, and was then appointed postmaster at 
Tecumseh, resigning that office in 1874, when 
on account of ill health, resulting from his 
wounds, he went to St. Louis, Mich., to avail 
himself of the curative properties of the waters 
there. As his health improved he became en- 
gaged in business at that place, investing in 
pine lands and the manufacture of lumber. In 
1875 he organized the Merchants' and Far- 
mers' Bank at St. Louis, which later became 
Harrington, Saviers & Co., and in 1892 be- 
came a state bank under the name of the 
Commercial Savings Bank, of which he is 
president. In 1888 he started the L. Saviers 
& Co. bank at Harrison, in Clare county, 
which is still doing business. Besides being a 
banker, General Saviers is an extensive far- 
mer, operating a model farm of four hundred 
acres near St. Louis. In 1888 he, with others, 
built the Electric Light & Power Company 
plant at St. Louis, and later purchased the 
entire stock and managed the enterprise until 
1899, when he sold the plant to the city. Gen- 
eral Saviers is a Republican in politics and a 
member of the order of Oddfellows. General 
and Mrs. Saviers have one daughter, Alice, 
wife of W. G. West, a druggist at St. Louis. 
The parents of General Saviers were Cyrus 
and Majtilda (Dean) Saviefs. His grand-, 
father, General John Saviers, came to America 
with Lafayette and distinguished himself as an 
Indian fighter in the War of the Revolution. 



iii 



MEN or PROGRESS. 




LOUIS E. ROWLEY. 

ROWLEY, LOUIS E. Mr. Rowley is 
among the best known, as he is also one of the 
most popular and aggressive Democratic editor 
in Michigan. His parents^ George and Kath- 
erine (Greene) Rowley, came from Monroe 
county, N. Y., in 1856, and settled in Orleans 
township, Ionia county, where the son was 
born May 17, 1858. He absorbed as much 
education as was possible, in a country district 
school, up to the age of 13, when he entered 
the office of the Ionia Sentinel as a printers' 
apprentice, and improved the opportunities of 
the situation for acquiring an advanced edu- 
cation, and has been learning ever since, be- 
cause the printing office and the newspaper 
contribute a school in which there is always 
something to learn. He was with the Sen- 
tinel six years, graduating from one branch to 
another of the printers' art, until he was pre- 
pared to assume the duties of the editor's 
chair. There was one thing that he did not 



learn with his early employers. Though pub- 
lishing a Republican paper, he did not learn 
their kind of politics but continued steadfastly 
in the Democratic faith. After working as 
a journeyman for a short time at South Bend, 
Ind., in the fall of 1877, he bought an interest 
in the Ionia Standard, the Democratic organ 
of that county, and became its editor. He 
continued in that connection until 1883, when 
he disposed of his interests at Ionia and pur- 
chased the Lansing Journal. Under his man- 
agement the Journal has become one of the 
leading and influential Democratic papers of 
the state. A man who is true to his convic- 
tions will always command the respect of those 
who may differ from him in opinion. Mr. 
Rowley did not approve of the financial plank 
in the Democratic platform of 1896, and 
ranged himself with that section of his party 
known as the Gold-Democrats. In the cam- 
paign of 1900, however, deeming the financial 
question (so far as it is an issue in the cam- 
paign) as subordinate to other paramount 
issues that have arisen, he is in accord with 
the great mass of his party. 

Mr. Rowley has served his party and the 
people in the responsible position of Deputy 
Secretary of State, and Postmaster at Lansing, 
the latter under the second Cleveland adminis- 
tration. As Deputy Secretary of State he 
continued in his position under two chiefs, 
Hon. Daniel E. Soper and Hon. Rol^ert R. 
Blacker, during the administration of Gov- 
ernor Winans, 1891-3. Mr. Rowley is a mem- 
ber of the Michigan Press Association, of the 
Order of Elks, and the Knights of Pythias. 
Miss Mary 0. Clark, daughter of EdAvard 
Clark, of Ionia, became Mrs. Rowley in 1882. 
One son, Edward Clark Rowley is the fruit 
of the marriage. 



HISTOKIGAL SKETCHES. 



ms 



BLISS, A AKOK T. The life of Col. BUss 
h a story of success, won by indefatigable en- 
ergy, indomitable perseverance and honest, 
plain methods of business. In one broad 
sweep of the imagination, which surveys only 
by fleeting glance the beginning of the strug- 
gle under most adverse circumstances and 
jumps over the long interim of years, filled 
with hardships and privations, to the contem- 
plation of the success which has rewarded 
heroic and unfaltering ambition, the real char- 
acter of men like Col. Bliss is most generally 
reviewed. 

Aaron T. Bliss was born at Smithfield, 
Madison county, N. Y., May 22, 1837. His 
father, Lyman Bliss, was a native of the Em- 
pire State land of English ancestry. Bis 
mother was Anna M. (Jhaffee, a New Eng- 
land lady of culture and refinement. The 
early years of Col. Bliss were spent on his 
father's farm, his education being obtained 
in the district schools and continued in a 
select school in the same county. When 18 
years of age he became clerk in a country 
store, in which occupation he continued until 
the breaking out of the Civil War, when he 
enlisted as a private in the Tenth New York 
Cavalry. After three years of eventful cam- 
paigning, he re-entered the service with the 
rank of captain. In June, 1864, his command 
was captured, and he was confined successively 
at Andersonville, Macon and Charleston. 
Being removed to Columbia, on November 29 
he escaped in company with several comrades. 
After seventeen days of tramping through the 
swamps and forests, he reached the lines of 
Sherman's army near Savannah. 

In 1865 Col. Bliss threw in his lot with the 
lumbermen of Saginaw valley, prospered 
and laid the foundation of a large and suc- 
cessful business. His immense lumbering 
operations have been extended to other states, 
and the exhausted timber lands tributary to 
Saginaw are now being converted into produc- 
tive farms. His business at present centers in 
the Central Lumber Co., of which he is presi- 
dent, but he figures prominently in numerous 
manufacturing and banking interests, besides 
being a large holder of real estate. 

The public life of Col. Bliss has been an 
active one, in which he has demonstrated his 
fitness to deal with important affairs. He was 
alderman of the city of Saginaw four years, 
served on the board of supervisors in Saginaw 
county, and in 1882 was elected to the State 
Senate. He served on the staff of Gov. Alger 




AARON T. BLISS. 

with the rank of colonel, and in 1888 was 
elected to the Fifty-first Congress. He se- 
cured for his district an Indian school, located 
in Isabella county, and a postoffice and gov- 
ernment building for Saginaw. He supported 
in an able speech the McKinley tariff* bill in 
Congress, and his efforts in behalf of the old 
soldiers made happy a thousand or more vet- 
erans and their dependents' in his district 
alone. 

Col. Bliss has rendered valuable service to 
his city and state. He served eleven years on 
the school board of Saginaw, and for two 
years was president of the Saginaw Board of 
Trade. For five years he was treasurer of the 
Soldiers' Home at Grand Eapids, after serv- 
ing as a member of the commission which 
located the institution. Col. Bliss was elected 
vice-president of the National League of Re- 
publican Clubs, and served one term as depart- 
ment commander of the Michigan C A. R. 
Few men have given more to churches, 
schools, colleges and other noble charities in 
proportion to their wealth than he. Mrs. 
Bliss, to whom the Colonel credits mu<;h of 
his success in life, was formerly Miss AUaseba 
M. Phelps, of Solsville, N. Y., a lady of cul- 
ture and prominent in benevolent and Chris- 
tian agencies for the betterment of mankind. 

At the present moment Col. Bliss is con- 
spicuous in the public eye because of his selec- 
tion as the Republican candidate for governor* 



':^- 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




WILL. ANTONY CROSBY. 

CROSBY, WILL ANTONY. Mr. Crosby, 

a practicing attorney at Battle Creek, is "na- 
tive and to the manor born,'' having first seen 
the light there June 11, 1864. His father, 
Peter Crosby, a native of Bath, Steuben 
county, New York, came to Battle Creek in 
1841. His mother, Mary J. Webster, was 
born in Findlay, Ohio. (Her father was re- 
lated to Daniel Webster.) Both parents are 
still living. The son attended school in Battle 
Creek until 1879, when he left school and for 
several months taught school in Barry county. 
During the summer and fall of 1880 he 
worked in a broker's office in Detroit. He 
then took the Bryant and Stratton Business 
College course, returning to his studies in the 
fall of 1881, and graduating from the Battle 
Creek High School June 22, 1882. After 
this he took charge of the books of the Union 
Mutual Life Insurance Co., in which capacity 
he was engaged for several months. While 
in this service he commenced to read law and 
was admitted to the bar at Marshall June 22, 
1885, before Judge F. A. Hooker. He 
located in Reed City and practiced his profes- 
sion there until March, 1890, when he was 



forced by ill-health to abandon his profession 
and return to Battle Creek for treatment, at 
which place, upon his recovery, in the spring 
of 1894, he resumed the practice of his pro- 
fession. 

Mr. Crosby is a natural born orator and has 
been successful, in a marked degree, in his 
professional work. His first prominent case 
was in defense of the alleged train wreckers 
at Battle Creek, who were charged with at- 
tempting to wreck trains on the Chicago & 
Grand Trunk Railway during the Pullman 
strike period in 1894. He also represented 
the defense in the celebrated Sanderson trial, 
in which the defendant was charged with the 
crime of murder, in having administered 
pounded glass to her husband, the accused 
lady having been triumphantly acquitted. 

Mr. Crosby was elected a member of the 
State Legislature in 1898 to represent the 
western district of Calhoun county, and served 
during the regular session of 1899 and special 
session which was called during the later days 
of that year and overlapped into the year 
1900. In the memorable contest over the 
speakership of the House of Representatives 
at the opening of the session of 1899, Mr. 
Crosby bore a conspicuous part. The candi- 
dates were John J. Carton, of Flint, and 
Edgar J. Adams, of Grand Rapids. Mr. 
Crosby made the nominating speech in favor 
of Mr. Carton, the vote on the first ballot being 
a tie, Mr. Adams winning, however, on the 
second trial. At the caucus of the Republi- 
can members of the two houses, at the same 
session, held for the purpose of nominating a 
United Staes Senator, Mr. Crosby made the 
principal nominating speech in favor of Sena- 
tor Burrows for re-election to that position. 
Mr. Crosby is the owner of 800 acres of coal 
lands in the Saginaw Valley, which he expects 
soon to develop. He also owns some 300 
acres of marl land in the county of Calhoun. 
He is a member of the Order of Elks and of 
the Fellowcraft Club (social), of Detroit. He 
was married January 7, 1896, to Miss Helene 
Carson, at South Bend, Ind. They have no 
children. 



HISTOEIGAL SKETCHES. 



WILSOX, MATHEW. The subject of this 
sketch, is a native of the Emerald Isle, having 
been born in the County of Antrim, Ireland, 
on August 21, 1830. When but 17 years of 
age, in the year 1847, he emigrated to this 
country and located in Philadelphia, where 
for the first year he v^orked in a cotton fac- 
tory. From Philadelphia he removed to a 
farm in Nev^ Jersey and for the succeeding six 
years followed the occupation of a tiller of the 
soil. From there he went to Chicago, in 
1854, and only a short time later removed to 
Racine, Wis. He remained in Wisconsin for 
about one year, working as a farm hand and 
later being employed by the manufacturing 
concern of J. I. Case & Co., of Racine, manu- 
facturers of farm implements. In the sum- 
mer of 1855 he left Racine and came to Mus- 
kegon, where he went to work in the sawmill 
owned and operated at that time by C. Davis 
& Co. For about six years he worked in dif- 
ferent sawmills during the summers and spent 
his winters in the logging camps. His first 
business enterprise was the establishment of 
a meat market in Muskegon in 1861 and this 
he operated until the spring of 1867, when he 
sold out to devote all of his time to the lum- 
bering business. He had started the erection 
of a sawmill in 1866 and in the spring of 
1867 this mill was put in operation, running 
from that time on until 1891, when it burned. 
The loss of his mill did not seriously hinder his 
lumbering operations and he rented and oper- 
ated the C. J. Hamilton mill for the balance 
of the year. For the succeeding two years his 
lumber was manufactured at the mill of 
George J. Tillotson, and in 1894 he ceased 
his lumbering operations and retired from all 
active business life. In educational lines Mr. 
Wilson never had any great advantages, all 
the schooling that he ever had having been 
before he left the country of his birth. Poli- 
tically, he is a Democrat and has often been 
urged to accept ofiices at the hands of his 
party. In political matters, however, he has 
shown modesty, although he has held some 
offices. Before Muskegon was incorporated 
as a city he held the office of village treasurer 




MATHEW WILSON. 

and after it became a city he was three times 
elected city treasurer. He also served on the 
Board of Public Works and on the Police 
Board. He has assisted in the beautification 
of the city he calls his home by the erection 
of four magnificent dwelling houses. Three 
of these handsome residences were built as 
homes for three of his children and the fourth 
as a home for himself. He was greatly as- 
sisted in this work by his late wife, who under- 
took the supervision of the erection of all four. 
As stated previously, Mr. Wilson has re- 
tired from active business life, but he is still 
interested in many business enterprises. He 
is president of and a stockholder in the Union 
National Bank of Muskegon and a stockholder 
in the Alaska Refrigerator Company, Muske- 
gon Valley Furniture Company and Home 
Building & Loan Association, all of Muske- 
gon. He is also a stockholder in the Maxwell 
Lumber Company, of Michigan City, liid. 
Socially, Mr. Wilson is a member of Muske- 
gon Lodge, No. 140, F. & A. M. He was 
married to Mary Louise Handy, daughter of 
Mrs. Eliza Handy, a native of New York 
state, at Muskegon, in 1863, and his wife died 
June 25, 1899. He has four children, all of 
whom reside in Muskegon. They are David 
A. Wilson, Mrs. Nellie L. McLaughlin, Will- 
iam H. Wilson and Alice L. Wilson, the latter 
being the only one still attending schooL 



MEN OF PEOGEESS. 




COL. OSCAR A JANES. 

JANES, COL. OSCAR A. Col. Janes is 
the present U. S. Pension Agent at Detroit. 
He was born at Johnstown, Rock county, 
Wis., July 6, 1843, the son of John E., and 
Esther (Bagley) Janes. The family are de- 
scended from William Janes, Avho was a mem- 
ber of the colony headed by Rev. John Dav- 
enport, which came over from England in 
1637, and founded the city of New Haven, 
Conn. Elijah Janes, the great-great-grand- 
father of Oscar A., saw service in the Colonial 
wars and in the War of the Revolution. 

Col. Janes received his early education in 
the public schools at Johnstown, and later 
attended the Milton (Wis.) Academy. In 
1863 he entered Hillsdale College, Michigan, 
but soon enlisted as a private in the Fourth 
Michigan Infantry. He was wounded at the 
siege of Petersburg, resulting in the loss of 
his left arm and was mustered out of the 
service in 1*864. Resuming his studies at 
Hillsdale College he was graduated therefrom 
in 1868, and began reading law with Judge 
C. J. Dickerson, of Hillsdale, was admitted 
to practice in 1871 and became partner with 
L. N. Keating, under the firm name of Keat- 
ing & Janes, the partnership terminating in 
1873 by the removal of Mr. Keating to Mus- 
kegon. He has served the city and county of 
HiUsdale officially and with fidelity^ in various 
positions. He was City Clerk 1 871-76, City 



Attorney 1872-76, Circuit Court Commis- 
sioner same term. Alderman 1876-78, Judge 
of Probate 1876-84, two terms. In 1894 he 
was elected to the State Senate from tlie-Sixth 
District but failed of re-election in 1896 be- 
cause of a strong silver sentiment in a portion 
of the district. In the Senate he was the 
father of the bill compelling the display of the 
national flag from all school buildings and of 
that appropriating $10,000 for a statue of the 
late Gov. Blair. He was chairman of the 
Committee on Soldiers' Home and Constitu- 
tion, and member of the Judiciary and Min- 
ing School Committees. In 18.84 Col. Janes 
was elected treasurer of Hillsdale College, 
serving as such four years. Since 1881 he 
has served as trustee of the College, and as 
auditor since 1894. In 1890 he formed a 
law partnership with H. G. Bailey under the 
firm name of Bailey & Janes, which continued 
until 1897. In 1885 he was appointed by 
Gov. Alger Paymaster-General of the Michi- 
gan National Guard, with rank of Colonel, 
serving the term of two years. On March 8, 
1897, Col. Janes was appointed to his present 
position of U. S. Pension Agent. The ap- 
pointment was the first made by President 
McKinley after the selection of his cabinet, 
and was confirmed by the Senate in the short 
term of five minutes. Col. Janes is a member 
of the Knights of Pythias, Oddfellows, Mac- 
cabees, G. A. R. (Detroit Post 'No, e384), 
Michigan Society of the Sons of the 
American Revolution, Detroit Lodge, Order 
of Elks, and U. S. Grant Command 
of Detroit, Union Veterans' Union, and 
Eellowcraft Club of Detroit. He has 
served as Commander of the Department of 
Michigan, G. A. R., as Inspector-General of 
the same order, as Department Commander 
of the Union Veterans' Union, as Grand Trus- 
tee of the Grand Lodge of Michigan (Pyth- 
ian), as Grand Master of the Michigan Grand 
Lodge (Oddfellows), and as their grand repre- 
sentative in the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the 
United States. He was president of the Re- 
publican State Convention in 1896, which 
elected delegates to the Republican ifational 
Convention at St. Louis. Col. Janes has 
been twice married — first in 1873, to Miss 
Vinnie E. Hill, of Hillsdale, who died in 
1875. In 1878 he marired as his second wife 
Miss Julia M. Mead, of Hillsdale. They have 
three children : Marie E., at Mary Nash Col- 
lege, Sherman, Texas, and Henry M. and 
John E., in school at home. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



'm& 




ANDREW B. DOUGHERTY. 



DOUGHERTY3 ANDREW B., son of 
Archibald K. Dougherty, was born in St. 
Johns, NoAV Brunswick, October 17, 1863. 
The family removed to Charlevoix, Mich., in 
1868, and in 1878 to Elk Eapids. The son 
attended the primary and graded schools until 
16 years of age, when he began business for 
himself. His first venture was in a small 
cigar and tobacco store, in which he was suc- 
cessful in a modest way, and to which he added 
a stock of groceries. He had a preference for 
a professional over a commercial life, how- 
ever, and in 1884 he decided to make the law 
his pursuit, and with that end in view he 
entered upon the study in the office of Fitch 
R. Williams, where he read law until his ad- 
mission to the bar before Judge J. G. Rams- 
dell at Bellaire, in May, 1889. In the fall of 
the year he accepted, temporarily, a position 
in the Senate folding room at Washington, 
which he resigned in 1890 to accept an ap- 
pointment as principal examiner of land 
claims and contests in the United States Land 



Office at Washington. In August, 1891, he 
resigned this place and joined the new set- 
tlers on the Cherokee strip in Oklahoma Ter- 
ritory, locating in the town of Perry. He 
found a stock of 300 lawyers already in this 
territory, and while he secured a full quota of 
the legal business, the dividend was small and 
after eleven months' struggle for existence 
and practice, in which he combined the work 
of a life insurance solicitor with law, he gave 
it up and returned to Elk Rapids. He opened 
an office and in the fall of 1894 was nomi- 
nated and elected Prosecuting Attorney of 
Antrim county, to which place he was twice 
re-elected, but resigned in March, 1900, to 
accept his present position of Deputy Col- 
lector of Internal Revenue for the Fourth 
Michigan district, comprising the northwest- 
ern portion of the Lower Peninsula. Mr. 
Dougherty is a Republican in politics, and has 
been a member of the State Central Cominit- 
tee from the Eleventh Congressional district 
since 1896. He is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity and the Knights of Pythias* 



MEN OF PKOGEESS. 




HON. THOMAS A. E. WEADOCK. 

WEADOCK, HON. THOMAS A. E. 
TEough a resident of Detroit since 1895, Mr. 
Weadock's public service was 'rendered in 
Bay City. He was born in County Wexford, 
Ireland, fifty years ago (January 1, 1850), 
one of a large family, the children of Lewis 
and Mary (Cullen) Weadock. His father's 
family, although originally Flemish, were 
prominent in Irish affairs for many genera- 
tions, his mother's family also being one of 
the oldest in Ireland. The parents came to 
America a few months after the birth of the 
son Thomas, and located on a farm near St. 
Mary's, Ohio. The son attended the public 
schools up to the age of 13, when by reason 
of the death of his father, he had to assume 
the management of the farm, his older brother 
being absent in the Union army. He con- 
tinued a course of private study in connection 
with his honie duties, until the discharge of 
his brother from the army in 1865, when he 
went to Cincinnati. He first entered a print- 
ing office, which did not prove to his taste, and 
after a few months' service as clerk, he re- 
turned to his home and was employed some 
five years in teaching in his own and adjacent 
counties, pursuing his studies meanwhile. He 
entered the Law Department of the Univers- 
ity at Ann Arbor in 1871, graduated there- 
from two years later and was at once admitted 
to the bar. He was also admitted to the Ohio 
bar, and in 1884 to the Supreme Court of the 
United States. Mr. Weadock located at Bay 
City in September, 1873. He was elected 



mayor of the city in 1883, serving until 1885, 
but declined a further election. Since 1881 
he has been a law partner with his brother, 
John C, under the firm name of T. A. E. and 
J. C. Weadock, and the firm still continues. 
Mr. Weadock was Assistant Prosecuting At- 
torney of Bay county (January, 1875, to 
July, 1877) and on the death of the Prose- 
cutor, his partner, G. M. Wilson, he was ap- 
pointed by Hon. Sanford M. Green to fill out 
the term, giving a vigorous administration. 
His law practice has been extensive and his 
cases are found in the Michigan Reports, 
from 36 Mich. down. 

A Democrat in politics, Mr. Weadock has 
been active in the work of the party, both on 
the stump and in its counsels. He has served 
as chairman of the city and county commit- 
tees and has presided over the Congressional 
and State Conventions of the party, and was 
a delegate-at-large to the Chicago Convention 
of 1896. He was elected to Congress from 
the Tenth District in 1890 and re-elected in 
1892, being the only Democrat ever elected 
from that district without fusion. He was a 
useful member of that body and especially 
successful in securing appropriations for local 
improvements. He aided in securing an in- 
crease of pay for the Life Saving Service men 
and had the eastern judicial district of Michi- 
gan divided into southern and northern divi- 
sions. In both his campaigns he was viru- 
lently opposed by a secret anti-Catholic so- 
ciety, which has been not inaptly rendered 
^^Ambushed Political Assassins." His most 
notable speech in Congress was an exposure 
of the secret oaths and aims of this society. 
He declined a renomination for Congress in 
1894. In 1893 he made an extensive tour 
in Europe. He has published papers on Rev. 
Gabriel Richard, Hon. Sanford M. Green and 
Pere Marquette. He was the author and sup- 
porter in Congress of a joint resolution allow- 
ing the statue of Pere Marquette to be re- 
ceived in Statuary Hall at Washington 
(though not a citizen of Wisconsin), that state 
having appropriated the money for the statue 
many years before. He is a member of the 
Executive Committee of the Detroit Bar As- 
sociation, member of the American Bar Asso- 
ciation and the Detroit Club. Mr. Weadock 
has been twice married. His first wife, Mary 
E. Tarsney, died March 11, 1889, leaving 
three daughters and three sons. The oldest 
son, Thomas J., is now a lawyer in Detroit. 
His second wife was Miss Nannie E. Curtiss, 
who is the mother of one child. Of the eleven 
children born to him, Mr. Weadock has lost 
four by death. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



m 



STEWART, DR. GEORGE DUFFIELD. 
The Stewarts from whom Dr. G. Duff Stewart 
is descended first came from Scotland to 
America, settling in Connecticut. The doc- 
tor's father. Dr. Morse Stewart, came to De- 
troit in 1842. He was a practicing physician 
for more than fifty years, stood at the head of 
his profession, having, however, retired from 
active practice a few years since. The mother 
of Dr. G. Duff Stewart, Isabella Duffield, was 
of the well known family of that name, a 
daughter of Rev. Dr. George Duffield, the 
first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church 
(the first of that denomination built iii De- 
troit), holding his pastorate for some thirty 
years. The father of Dr. Duffield was a resi- 
dent of Pennsylvania, was also a clergyman 
and officiated as chaplain in the Continental 
Congress. 

Dr. G. Duff Stewart was born in Detroit 
March 21, 1855. His primary education was 
received in the Detroit public schools, and his. 
scientific education in the Detroit College of 
Medicine, from which he graduated in 1878. 
He then spent a year in Heidelberg, Ger- 
many, as a rounding out of his professional 
course. Returning to Detroit he at once set- 
tled down to the practice of his profession. 
In 1883 he was appointed city physician, and 
in 1885 county physician, holding each posi- 
tion two years. In 1886 he was elected a 
member of the Board of Education of Detroit, 
serving as such until the constitution of the 
board was changed by act of Legislature, 
which took effect in 1888. For the succeed- 
ing ten years the doctor devoted his full time 
to his practice, while yet keeping in close 




DR. GEORGE DUFFIELD STEWART. 

touch with his party, and in 1898 was nomi- 
nated for sheriff of Wayne county, and was 
elected by a handsome majority over one of 
the strongest Republicans in the county, 
being the only Democrat elected on the 
county ticket that year. The doctor is well 
known as a hustler, professionally and politi- 
cally. 

Dr. Stewart's ancestors on both sides 
(Stewarts and Duffields) have been well rep- 
resented in the country's wars. The annals 
of 1776, 1812, the Mexican war, the war of 
the Rebellion and the war with Spain, bear 
testimony to their services in the field. The 
Stewart Light Infantry, of Detroit, is go 
named in honor of Dr. Stewart, "he being an 
honorary member of the corps. Dr. Stewart 
is a member of the Order of Elks and is a 
bachelor. 



«10 



MEN OF PKOGKESS. 




HON. ROBERT OAKMAN. 

OAKMAN, HON. KOBT. Mr. Oakman 
is of Irish lineage, and from a printer's ap- 
prentice has become one of the best known 
men in the state. His parents, John and 
Elizabeth (Normille) Oakman, Avere both na- 
tives of Ireland, coming to Detroit in 1846. 
The father was a machinist and was employed 
for many years in the Michigan Central shops 
and helped build the first locomotive engine 
built by the Michigan Central Kailroad. The 
son Robert was born in Detroit, August 21, 
1860. He passed from the public schools to 
the printers' art at the age of 15, becoming 
an apprentice in the mechanical department 
of the then Detroit Post. After a service of 
seven years as apprentice and journeyman, he 
established a weekly paper called the ^^Spec- 
tator," devoted to the interests of the labor 
organizations, with which he had for some 
years been identified. In 1882 he was a can- 
didate on the labor ticket, for a seat in the 
City Council (then called the "upper house"), 
coming within 200 votes of an election. In 
1884 he was a candidate for the same place, 
on the Republican ticket, but the party was in 
a minority at that time. After publishing 
his paper a year and a half, he sold out and 



engaged in the real estate business, which was 
then having what is termed a boom. He han- 
dled property in the North Woodward Ave- 
nue section and in the northeastern part of 
the city, near the Milwaukee Junction, and 
scored a success by a new departure in real 
estate handlings, in the form of huge auction 
sales. Although latterly giving his time 
largely to political and official life, he has yet 
considerable real estate interests and handles 
several desirable trusts. 

While holding no office by election, Mr. 
Oakman may be said to have been a success, 
politically. His sympathies with labor in- 
terests drew him towards (lov. Pingree, then 
mayor of Detroit, Avhose altruistic tendencies 
are well known. Becoming a political lieu- 
tenant and faithful adherent of Mr. Pingree, 
that gentleman, both as Mayor and Governor, 
has recognized his claims to preferment. In 
1889 he was appointed Assistant City Asses- 
sor, but resigned in 1891 to become private 
secretary to Mayor Pingree, serving as such 
until 1895, when he was appointed a member 
of the Board of Assessors of Detroit, which 
is composed of three members serving the full 
term of three years. In March, 1899, he was 
appointed a member of the State Board of 
Assessors of railroad, telegraph, telephone and 
express companies, which act was declared 
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. In 
July, 1899, he was appointed a member of 
the first Board of State Tax Commissioners 
for the long term (six years). His work as a 
member of this board has given him promi- 
nence throughout the state, as well as having 
inspired a high degree of confidence in and 
respect for his impartial but firm administra- 
tion of the office. 

Mr. Oakman is a member of the Knights of 
Pythias and of the Michigan Club, and was 
one of the organizers of the "Lincoln League'' 
of Michigan, a Republican organization. He 
was for four years a member of the Republi- 
can State Central Committee and two years a 
member of its executive committee. Miss 
Mamie R. Moross, a descendant of one of the 
early French families with Cadillac, became 
Mrs. Oakman in 1887. There are no chil- 
dren. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



511 



LITTLE, ANDREW JAMES. Starting 
out as a newsboy and printers' apprentice, 
Mr. Little has had, to say the least, a some- 
what varied career. Born at Northville, 
October 6, 1862, like many another young- 
ster, he attended the public schools and 
"picked up'' bits of knowledge and informa- 
tion as he picked up the type from his case, 
and as the type w^ere formed first into the 
line, then into the stickful and finally into 
the full form, so Mr. Little has locked up an 
average form of general information in his 
mental chase. He began work as an appren- 
tice on the Northville Record, of which his 
brother was proprietor, before he was 12 years 
of age, and at the same time worked up a 
route and carried the Detroit Evening News 
in Northville. In 1874 he went to work for 
Comfort Bros., druggists, in Detroit, remain- 
ing with them about two years. He then 
went to work in the office of the Ingham 
County News at Mason, working there three 
years. He then started the South Lyon Sen- 
tinel at South Lyon, of which he was editor 
for two years. This he sold out and started 
the Bancroft Sentinel at Bancroft, which he 
edited for about a year, and then sold out and 
went to Chicago. Here he secured a position 
on the Chicago Times, remaining there about 
a year. In 1883 he went to Grand Rapids as 
manager of the Henry C Allen Publishing 
Co., remaining with them three years. In 
1886 he went to Battle Creek and purchased 
an interest in the Art Album Manufacturing 
Co., securing a position with them as traveling 
salesman. In 1892 he brought about a reor- 
ganization of the company, merging it into 
the Metal Back Album Co., of which he was 
made vice-president and manager. The plant 
was sold out in 1898 and Mr. Little then or- 
ganized the first independent telephone com- 
pany in Calhoun county, of which he was 
made treasurer and manager. The plant is 
but a trifle more than two years old but has 
been a remarkably successful one from the 
first. 

During his fourteen years' residence in 
Battle Creek Mr. Little has always been an 




ANDREW JAMES LITTLE. 

active promoter of all enterprises tending to 
the improvement and advancement of the 
city. He is treasurer of and helped organize 
the A. T. Metcalf Lodge (Masonic) at Battle 
Creek, the Calhoun County Republican Club 
and the Battle Creek Guards (the latter one 
of the finest companies to go to the front dur- 
ing the Spanish war), and assisted in getting 
them mustered into service. He has been an 
active Republican from boyhood, secretary of 
the Executive Committee of the Calhoun 
County Republican Club and is frequently 
chosen as delegate to Republican Conven- 
tions, and is a member of the Michigan Club. 
His society connections are numerous. Is a 
Mason of the higher degrees, including the 
Knights Templar and the Mystic Shrine, and 
a member of the Elks, of the Order of the 
Red Men and of the Athelstan Club of Battle 
Creek. He also holds honorary membership 
in the Sheriff and Police Association of Michi- 
gan, and in military companies in Battle 
Creek, Grand Rapids and Detroit. Miss 
Rose Wert, daughter of Samuel Wert, of 
Laingsburg, became Mrs. Little February 6, 
1882. They have one child, a daughter.* Mr. 
Little's father was Edward Little, proprietor 
of the Argo Flouring Mills at Northville. 
Mr. Little's parents were Presbyterians and 
natives of BelfaBt, Ireland. His mother's 
maiden name was Rose Harkins. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




LEE E. JOSLYN. 

JOSLYN, LEE E. Mr. Joslyn was born 
February 26, . 1864, at Darien, Genesee 
county, N. Y., his father, "Willis B. Joslyn, 
having been a building contractor. When 
he was seven years old his parents removed to 
McLean county. Pa., and two years later they 
settled in Dryden to^vnship, Lapeer county, 
Mich. The son, being one of a family of 
eight children, had some primary school in- 
struction, at his former place of residence, but 
after the rergoval to Dryden he was a regular 
attendant at the public schools for eight years, 
and was graduated from the Union School at 
Dryden in 1881. Soon after leaving school, 
being then but 17 years of age, he began 
reading law. with Judge William W. Stick- 
ney, of Lapeer, who paid him the compliment 
of saying that he mastered Blackstone the 
most readily of any student he ever had in 
his office. Mr. Joslyn's law reading was in- 
termitted by the necessity of pursuing some 
remunerative employ, mainly at teaching, he 
having been principal two years of the graded 
school at Otisville, and one year principal of 
the ward school in West Bay City, not omit- 
ting to mention a season as night clerk in a 
hotel. His later law reading was pursued 



under Judge George H. Durand, of Flint, 
and Thos. A. E. Weadock, then of Bay City 
but now of Detroit. He was admitted to the 
bar in June, 1886, and at once began prac- 
tice in West Bay City, spicing out the small 
income of a beginner with some receipts from 
newspaper writing. In March, 1888, he re- 
moved his office to Bay City, occupying an 
office in connection with U. S. Commissioner 
McMath. At the November election in 1888 
he was elected Circuit Court Commissioner 
and re-elected in 1890. He was advanced 
from this position to that of prosecuting attor- 
ney in 1892. He is at present city attor- 
ney for West Bay City and local attor- 
ney for the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railway 
Co. His political preferment has come 
through the Democratic party, of which he is 
an adherent and active member. 

Mr. Joslyn is especially known in connec- 
tion with the Order of Foresters, of which he 
has been a member since 1887, and at the 
hands of which he has enjoyed the highest 
honors. He was elected High Counsellor at 
the Bay City meeting of the High Court in 
1892 and High Vice-Chief Ranger at the 
High Court meeting at Saginaw in 1893. In 
the fall of that year he was appointed High 
Chief Ranger, to fill the vacancy caused by 
the death of Frank Millis, and served as such 
until 1897. He declined an election at the 
Port Huron meeting in that year, succeeding 
to the position of Past High Chief Ranger. 
At the Detroit meeting in 1898 he was elected 
High Secretary, which position he now holds. 
He was Michigan delegate to the Supreme 
Court meeting at Chicago in 1893, and a dele- 
gate to the Supreme Court meeting held in 
London, England, in 1895, and a member of 
the committee on laws. He is a member of 
the Masonic fraternity, including the Michi- 
gan Sovereign Consistory of the Scottish Rite 
at Detroit, was four years Chancellor Com- 
mander of the Bay City Lodge, I^o. 23, 
Knights of Pythias, and a member of the 
Grand Lodge four years. He is also a mem- 
ber of the Maccabees, Oddfellows and Modern 
Woodmen. Miss Alice L. Wilson, daughter 
of F. L. Wilson, of West Bay City, became 
Mrs. Joslyn in 1893. They have two chil- 
dren, Lee E., Jr., and Allan F. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



513 



PHELAN, HON. JAMES. The Associ- 
ate Recorder of Detroit, and a judge of the 
Recorder's Court, Hon. James Phelan, is a 
native Detroiter, and is of Irish extraction, 
with a mixture of French. His father, John 
P. Phelan, was a sea captain and was lost at 
sea in 1862. His mother, Catherine New- 
man, daughter of William Newman, a native 
of Waterford, Ireland, still lives with her son 
James in Detroit. James Phelan was born in 
1858 and at the age of 42 has served the peo- 
ple of his native city in various positions of 
trust. His primary education was received 
in Detroit schools (partly in private schools), 
up to the age of 14, his expenses during the 
last two years having been met by his personal 
labor during the summer months. Leaving 
school in 1872 he secured a position with the 
Michigan Central Railroad as check clerk in 
their lumber yard, serving in that capacity 
three years. He was then promoted to the 
train department of the same road, seeing a 
like term of service there, when he was ad- 
vanced to the position of yardmaster, which 
position he filled five years. A partial failure 
of eyesight caused him to give up this work in 
1883, when he went west and spent a year and 
a half in traveling in the western states for 
his health. Returning to Detroit in the fall 
of 1884, he entered the law office of James H. 
Pound and began the study of law. His 
funds running short, at the end of two years, 
he accepted a position in the supply depart- 
ment of the Board of Education, and later in 
the office of the County Clerk, in each of 
which positions he remained six months, pur- 
suing his law studies at night, during the 
year. Having saved a little means, he re- 
sumed his studies with Mr. Pound and in 1888 
was admitted to the bar before Judge C. J, 
Reilly of the Wayne Circuit Court. Begin- 
ning active practice in 1889, he was the same 
fall nominated for Justice of the Peace on 
the Democratic ticket and was elected by 
about 1,000 majority over Eelix A. Lempkie, 
the Republican candidate, beginning his offi- 
cial duties July 4, 1890. He served in this 
position three and a half years, and resigned 




HON. JAMES PHELAJt. 

in December, 1893, to accept the position of 
Collector of Internal Revenue under Presi- 
dent Cleveland. His removal in February, 
1898, followed as a sequence to the election 
of President McKinley in 1896. 

During his term as collector, Mr. Phelan 
collected over $8,400,000 for the government, 
for the whole of which vast simi his books 
showed perfect balances. He incurred the 
displeasure of the so-called Good Government 
League, by his neglect to furnish them with 
data from his books, designed to aid them in 
their work. They filed charges against him 
but he went to Washington in his own de- 
fense and was sustained by the department. 
In March, 1899, he was nominated for Asso- 
ciate Recorder and was elected by 3,376 ma- 
jority, despite the hostility of the Good Gov- 
ernment League, taking his seat January 9, 
1900, for the term of six years. Judge Phe- 
lan is unmarried. His society connections 
are Catholic Mutual Benevolent Association, 
Ancient Order of Hibernians, American In- 
surance Union and Michigan Bar Association* 

The foregoing brief sketch will show tkat 
Judge Phelan is a self-made man, haviBg 
made his own way in the world, from the first, 
without outside help from any sottme. 



S14 



MEN OF PEOOKESS. 




JOHN CHRISTIAN HARTZ. 



HAKTZ, JOHN CHEISTIAN. Mr. 
Hartz is the well known dealer in clothing, 
hats, shoes and gentlemen's furnishings on 
Monroe Avenue, in Detroit. He was born 
near Kiel, Holstein, Germany, April 9, 1855, 
the son of John H. and Mary (Behring) 
Hartz. His early education was received in 
the schools of his native country and at the 
age of 12 years he came with his parents to 
America. They located at New Baltimore, 
Mich., and after a stay of a couple of years 
there, the son came permanently to reside in 
Detroit. After attending a business college 
for a year he entered the establishment of 
0. C. McCloskey, hatter, as an apprentice, 
subsequently serving with other prominent 
manufacturer and dealers in the same line. 
Having acquired a thorough knowledge of the 
business, he in 1883, became senior partner in 
the firm of Hartz & Kernaghan, hatters and 



furnishers. After three years in this connec- 
tion, he in 1886 became sole proprietor of the 
business, which he has since conducted with 
marked success. Mr. Hartz has served the 
public as a member of the Board of Metro- 
politan Police Commission, as a member of 
the Board of City Assessors, and as Under 
Sheriff of Wayne county, the latter under 
Sheriff Chipman. He was appointed on the 
Police Commission by Mayor Pingree in Feb- 
ruary, 1896, which office he resigned in 1897, 
to accept the appointment of City Assessor 
under Mayor Maybury. Mr. Hartz is a 
member of the Knights of Pythias, the Elks, 
the Harmonic and Concordia Singing Socie- 
ties and the German Salesmen's Association. 
In politics he is a Democrat. In 1879 he 
married Lena Orth of Detroit. Four chil- 
dren, Henrietta, Gertrude, Yiola and Harry 
M., are the fruit of the marriage. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



615 



LOTHROP, HENRY BROWN. Mr. 

Lothrop was born in Detroit July 8, 1855, the 
son of George Van Ness and Almira (Strong) 
Lothrop. George V. N. Lothrop was a lead- 
ing light in Michigan for fifty years until his 
light went out with his death in 1897. Born 
and educated in New England, he came to 
Detroit in 1853 and entering upon the study 
of the law, he became the able lawyer, the 
courteous gentlemen and the matchless orator. 
He was a favorite in the Democratic party, 
was twice its candidate for Congress, and only 
an adverse political majority stood between 
him and the highest honors of the nation. 
His talents secured for him retainers from the 
large corporations, and an ample fortune, the 
fruit of just endeavor, was mainly represented 
by real estate and commercial interests in and 
around Detroit. His professional career was 
practically terminated by his acceptance of 
the Russian mission, to which he was ap- 
pointed under the first Cleveland administra- 
tion, and which he held for two and one-half 
years, when he returned to Detroit, where the 
remainder of his life was passed. The son 
may Avell feel proud of such a parentage. 
Henry B. Lothrop has chosen a business rather 
than a professional career, and while he mod- 
estly announces himself as a Grosse Pointe 
farmer, he has the active management of 
large property interests. His education was 
rounded out at the State University, from 
which he graduated in 1877. On the com- 
pletion of his education he entered the em- 
ploy of the Michigan Central Railroad Com- 
pany, and later accepted a position with the 
wholesale hardware house of Buhl, Ducharme 
& Co., where he remained three years. In 
1881 he was offered and accepted a position 
with the Griffin Car Wheel Company, and a 
year later became a stockholder in the Michi- 
gan Carbon Works, with an active participa- 
tion in the office work of the company. On 
the appointment of his father as minister to 
Russia, Mr. Lothrop threw up all other busi- 
ness engagements to take charge of his large 
business interests. Since the death of his 
father he has been the manager of the estate, 




HENRY BROWN LOTHROP. 

which is now represented by the Lothrop 
Estate Company, Limited, of which he is 
treasurer. He is also treasurer of the Lothrop 
& Duffield Land Company, Limited, and a 
director in the First National Bank and in 
the Hargreaves Manufacturing Company. 

Mr. Lothrop has been an enthusiastic mem- 
ber of the state militia, having been actively 
connected with various organizations for the 
past twenty-five years. He joined the Detroit 
Light Guard in 1875 and the Detroit Light 
Infantry in 1877, in which company he passed 
from the grade of lieutenant to that of cap- 
tain. He was appointed Inspector-General of 
Michigan State Troops by Gov. Winans, in 
1891, with the rank of Brigadier-General. 
On the expiration of his term he re-enlisted 
in the Light Infantry and the same year was 
elected captain of Company H. His service, 
however, has not all been of the carpet knight 
order, he having been captain of Company L, 
Thirty-second Michigan Infantry, during the 
war with Spain. Being a bachelor, Mr. 
Lothrop has quite extended societary connec- 
tions. He is a member of the Detroit, the 
Century, the University and the Detroit 
Yacht Clubs, of the Harmonie Society, of the 
Order of Elks, is an associate member of De- 
troit Post, G. A. E., and a member of the 
Veteran Corps of the Light Infantry. Like 
his father, he is a Democrat in politics. 



118 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




THEODORE DkLONG BUHL. 

BUHL, THEODORE DE LONG. Mr. 
Buhl is a son of the late Christian H. Buhl, 
who was for over fifty years one of the leading 
business men of Detroit. He was mayor of 
the city 1860-62, the first Republican to be 
elected to that office after the formation of the 
Republican party in 1854. He was at one 
time extensively engaged in the fur trade, but 
subsequently established the first wholesale 
hardware house in the State, which in the 
course of its history came to be known as 
Buhl Sons & Co. Mr. Buhl acquired a con- 
siderable fortune, had large manufacturing 
interests in Detroit and was largely interested 
in the iron industry in Pennsylvania, of which 
state he was a native. He was a liberal 
patron of the public institutions and charities 
of the city, and among his benefactions was 
the presentation of a valuable law library to 
the State University. 

Theo. D. Buhl was born in Detroit August 
20, 1844. His education was received in De- 
troit and abroad. No small part of his edu- 
cation, however, consisted in his training for 
practical business in the store of which bis 
father was the head^ and to the management 



of which he succeeded on his father's death. 
His active business life, however, antedated 
that event by some years, and few men have 
contributed more to the industrial and com- 
mercial growth of the state. He is the senior 
member of the firm of Buhl Sons & Co., the. 
largest and oldest jobbing hardware house in 
Michigan. He is president of the Parke, 
Davis & Co., corporation, of the Buhl Stamp- 
ing Co., the Detroit Meter Co. and the Buhl 
Malleable Co., a director and one of the larg- 
est owners of the Detroit Copper & Brass 
Rolling Mills, of the Canadian Meter Co., the 
Detroit Union Depot Co. and the Strong Lum- 
ber Co., and a director and vice-president of 
the Detroit National Bank. He is also a stock- 
holder in the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation 
Co. and is interested in a number of other 
local enterprises and is the owner of much 
valuable real estate and improved property in 
Detroit and Wayne county, including the 
Buhl Block and Telegraph Block in Detroit. 
Mr. Buhl has been a generous contributor 
to the University of Michigan, to the Detroit 
High School Scholarship Fund, the Detroit 
Museum of Art, the Children's Free Hospital, 
the Protestant Orphan Asylum, and other 
educational, benevolent and charitable enter- 
prises. He is a member of the Fort Street 
Presbyterian Church and of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, and of a number of 
social clubs, including the Detroit, Michigan 
(Republican), Country, Lake St. Clair Fish- 
ing & Shooting, Detroit Athletic and Detroit 
Boat Club. Mr. Buhl was married April 22, 
1868, to Miss Julia Elizabeth Walker, daugh- 
ter of Hiram Walker, then of Detroit, but 
later the founder of the town of Walkerville, 
opposite Detroit, in Canada. Eight children 
have been the fruit of the marriage, four of 
which are living — Mary Buhl Warren, wife 
of Wm. M. Warren, general manager of 
Parke, Davis & Co., Willis E. and Arthur H., 
connected with their father in the manage- 
ment of the business of Buhl Sons & Co., and 
Lawrence De Long Buhl, youngest son, is 
still at school. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



6lf 



BAXTER, CHARLES ERIs^EST. For a 

young man of 37 years, Mr. Baxter has made 
a varied record in political and business circles 
and is widely known throughout the state. 
His paternal ancestors were Scotch-Irish, his 
great-great-grandfather coming to America in 
1692. His parents, Daniel C, and Emily 
(Shepardson) Baxter (the latter a Massachu- 
setts lady), settled on a farm near Eayette, 
Ohio, where Charles E. was born March 18, 
1863. In his early infancy his parents re- 
moved to West Unity, Ohio, where his father 
was a general merchant and postmaster under 
President Lincoln. The son passed from the 
village schools at West Unity to the graded 
schools at Bryan, Ohio, and in 1879 entered 
Oberlin College, remaining there two years 
and later completing his studies in Williams 
College, Massachusetts, where he was a mem- 
ber of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. 
He then became connected with the Bryan 
(Ohio) Press, first as a reporter and afterwards 
as editor, thus beginning his career as a jour- 
nalist. Subsequently he became a reporter 
on the Cleveland Herald, and in 1885 bought 
an interest in the Republican at Charlotte, 
Mich. He was editor of that paper until 
1892, when he disposed of his interest and 
came to Detroit, where he was a political 
writer on the Detroit Tribune, in which capa- 
city he remained until he became secretary to 
United States Senator John Patton of Grand 
Rapids. In 1895 he returned to Detroit and 
engaged successfully for a time as a bond 
broker, and in 1896 was tendered and ac- 
cepted the position of state manager of the 
Manhattan Life Insurance Co., which position 
he holds at the present time. 

Incidentally, Mr. Baxter has filled many 
places of honor and trust outside of his stated 
engagements. He was assistant secretary of 
the State Senate in 1889, assistant secretary 
of the Republican State Central Committee 
in 1892-94, and Deputy State Treasurer 




CHARLES ERNEST BAXTER. 

1893-94, a period when on account of the 
panic and the depleted condition of the state 
treasury, the deputyship was a position of 
great responsibility. He was president of the 
Eaton County Republican League in 1888, 
was secretary of the State League of Republi- 
can Clubs four years and was Michigan mem- 
ber of the National Republican League's Ex- 
ecutive Committee 1895-6. 

Mr. Baxter is a member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity, including Charlotte Commandery, 
JSTo. 37, Knights Templar, is a member of 
Moslem Temple (Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine), of Detroit, and is a Past Chancellor 
of Knights of Pythias. He was married at 
Charlotte in 1886 to Miss Dora Gay Belcher, 
daughter of James Belcher, one of the few 
Kentucky plantation owners who voluntarily 
freed their slaves. Two children, Marie A. 
and Kenneth S., both at home, are the fruit 
of the marriage. Mr. Baxter has hosts of 
friends, who will wish him a long life of pros- 
perity and usefulness, corresponding to his 
past. 



;iis:> 



MEN OF PKOGRESS. 




CHARLES FLOWERS. 



FLOWERS, CHARLES. Mr. Flowers' 
immediate parents were of the Society of 
Friends (Quakers), which tendency Mr. 
Flowers himself inherits. His ancestors were 
not all that way, however, or if so, they were 
of the fighting kind, his great-great-grand- 
father, Charles Flowers, having been a cap- 
tain in the Revolutionary army, his mother 
being a descendant of Gen. Timothy Picker- 
ing, of Revolutionary fame, and secretary of 
state under President Washington. His 
mother was also a descendant of the Quimby 
family of Philadelphia, one Josiah Quimby 
having manufactured the clock and machin- 
ery of the "Liberty Bell," which announced 
the adoption of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. Mr. Flowers' parents, Joseph and 
Sarah (Pickering) Flowers, were residents of 
Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in the immediate 
neighborhood of "Penn's Manor," where 
William Penn made his first settlement, and 
within , three miles of where Washington 
crossed the Delaware to fight and win the 
battle of Trenton. Mr. Flowers was born 
there December 14, 1845. The father died 
in 1867 and the mother in 1876. They were 
farmers and the son divided his time between 



farm work and school. Early in 1860 he took 
up the study of phonography, for which he 
demonstrated an especial aptness. His first 
employ was in the Grand Trunk Railway 
offices in New York city, following which he 
attended a Collegiate Institute at Fort Ed- 
wards for two years. After the close of the 
Civil War he was employed as official stenog- 
rapher of the government military commis- 
sion which sat at Raleigh, N. C. Subse- 
quently he studied law for a year at New 
York, and came to Detroit, his present resi- 
dence, in 1868. Mr. Flowers was the first 
to introduce shorthand reporting in the Michi- 
gan courts, which has now become an indis- 
pensable feature. He secured the passage of 
the law for the purpose in 1869 and the same 
year was appointed stenographer of the 
Wayne Circuit Court, by Gov. Baldwin. He 
was also reporter for the United States Courts 
in Detroit. He pursued the study of law con- 
currently and was admitted to the bar in 
1878. In his capacity as stenographer he 
was one of the official reporters for the three 
Constitutional Conventions — Illinois in 1868, 
Pennsylvania in 1872 and Ohio in 1873. He 
also reported scientific conventions at various 
points in the United States, being recognized 
as an expert in that line of work. He was 
elected Circuit Court Commissioner in 1880 
and again in 1882, resigning his stenographic 
work. He was an unsuccessful candidate 
(Republican) for Prosecuting Attorney in 
1884. He was a member of the Detroit Fire 
Commission four years, 1885-9, and in July, 
1896, was appointed Corporation Counsel by 
Mayor Pingree, holding the office four years. 
He is now general counsel for the Michigan 
Telephone Co., and a director in that cor- 
poration. 

As a lawyer, Mr. Flowers has shown no less 
aptness than in his former profession. He 
surprised his friends (and would equally have 
surprised his enemies, if he had had any) by 
the brilliancy of his presentation speech in 
favor of Gov. Pingree at the time of his nomi- 
nation in 1896. They could not well under- 
stand how a man could blossom out from the 
mechanical work of a reporter to the rank of 
the finished orator. But Mr. Flowers was 
there, beyond question. 

Miss Mary E. DeNormandie, of Pennsyl- 
vania, became Mrs. Flowers in 1868. Of 
their three children, Norman is practicing 
with his father. 



HISTOKIOAL SKETCHES. 



m 



BEAMER, WILLIAM H. When the 
municipal record of Detroit comes to be writ- 
ten, no name will stand out in brighter colors 
than that of William H. Beamer, now serving 
his third term as alderman of the First Ward. 
Other men may have made more stir than he 
has done, but for faithfulness and fidelity to 
his trust and firm adherence at all times, and 
under all circumstances, to what he deemed 
to be right, he stands in the foremost rank 
among the faithful of the city's servants. Mr. 
Beamer's parents, Daniel W. and Jennie 
(Downs) Beamer, were from Canada, but re- 
moved to Hillsdale county, this state, in 1855. 
The Beamers are remotely of Dutch extrac- 
tion, while on his mother's side Mr. Beamer 
boasts of New England blood. The parents 
removed to Detroit in 1859, where Wm. H. 
was born, July 4, 1861. If one's horoscope 
may be traced from their nativity, Mr. 
Beamer's sterling patriotism is in political har- 
mony with the time of his birth, having been 
on the anniversary of the nation's nativity, 
and at the time when the nation was nerving 
itself for the struggle that was to determine 
whether it was to live or die. With an educa- 
tion obtained in the Detroit schools, Mr. 
Beamer, at the age of 16, entered the employ 
of the Pullman Car Company, and after a 
year's service went to Colorado, where he 
passed five years in the gold mines of that 
territory. Eeturning to Detroit in 1883, he 
was engaged for a couple of years as proprietor 
of a family supply store (groceries and meats) 
and in 1885 opened on a small scale the 
Library Park Hotel, which he has since con- 
ducted successfully and which has increased 
to more than double its original capacity. He 
has proved a popular landlord and his asso- 
ciation is valued for his social qualities and 
his personal integrity. 

Mr. Beamer first came prominently to pub- 
lic notice in 1894, when he was elected alder- 
man. At that time there was some factional 
feeling (as there has perhaps continued to be) 
growing out of the advanced ideas of Mayor 
Pingree regarding measures of municipal ad- 
ministration. Mr. Beamer was elected as a 




WILLIAM H. BEAMER. ' 

so-called "Pingree man" but it soon developed 
that he was such only in those things wherein 
in his judgment he thought Pingree [was 
right. As a member of the Common Coun- 
cil, Aid. Beamer does not hesitate to advocate 
in his vigorous style any measure that he 
deems to be right, while he is pronounced, 
firm and consistent in opposition to whatever 
he thinks to be wrong. He is a good objector 
and iuo measure of importance passes the 
Council without his careful and intelligent 
scrutiny. Among all the rumors of official 
crookedness, not one has attached itself to the 
First Warder, and the same may be said of his 
colleague. Aid. Coots, who may be termed the 
Nestor of the Common Council. At his sec- 
ond election to the Council in 1896, Mr. 
Beamer had no opposition. He was again 
elected in 1898 and during the year 1899 was 
President of the Council. 

Mr. Beamer is quite well-to-do, financially, 
having real estate interests in Detroit and 
elsewhere. He is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity. He was married August 16, 1880, 
to Miss Florence G. Turner, daughter of P. G. 
Turner, of Detroit. Three children, Myrtle, 
Grace and Lloyd, all at home, are the fruit of 
the marriage. 



MEN OF PEO&RESS. 




HON. DEXTER MASON FERRY. 

FERRY, HON. DEXTEK MASON. The 
name of Ferry was originally French, but the 
family is of English extraction, coming thence 
to New England, where the name appears as 
early as 1688. The branch of the family 
from which Dexter M. is descended removed 
from Massachusetts to Lowville, Lewis county, 
N. Y., where Dexter M. was born August 8, 
1833, the son of Joseph N. and Lucy D. 
(Mason) Ferry. The father died when th» 
son was but three years old, and the family 
soon after removed to near Eochester, N. Y., 
where the boyhood of Dexter M. was passed. 
Leaving the local school at the age of 16, he 
began active life as a farm hand at $10 per 
month, working thus two summers, but at- 
tending school during the winter, receiving 
also, for a few months, an advanced course of 
instruction at Eochester. 

Mr. Ferry's advent in Detroit was in 1852, 
as employee in a wholesale stationery store. 
Having saved a little financial means, he 
entered as a partner the seed house firm of M. 
T. Gardner & Company. Mr. Ferry became 
the head of the firm in 1865, and in 1867 its 
title was changed to D. M. Ferry & Company. 
The present company was incorporated under 
that name in 1879, with a capitalization of 
$750,000, absorbing a younger house, the 
Detroit Seed Company. 

Some men make good lieutenants, but fail 
as captains. Others become captains through 
gifts of nature which it would be difficult to 



analyze. Mr. Ferry is one of the latter. 
Under his management the business has 
grown from a small store to an extensive plant, 
and from sales of about $6,000 to $1,500,- 
000.00 annually. 

It goes without saying that worldly com- 
petence has rewarded Mr. Ferry's labors. He 
has large investments in real estate, and his 
name appears in the directorate and at the 
head of numerous manufacturing and banking 
interests. He has interests as stockholder, 
president or director in a dozen leading bank- 
ing and other institutions in Detroit, and 
also has banking and railway interests in 
Arizona. 

Mr. Ferry's money and his personal aid and 
countenance have always been freely given to 
such projects — whether business, social or 
charitable — as promised to be of public bene- 
fit, and his private charities are large, discrim- 
inating and entirely wanting in ostentation. 
"Let not thy right hand know what thy left 
hand doeth" is a rule with him. He is one of 
the trustees of Grace Hospital, Detroit, the 
Detroit Museum of Art, and of Olivet Col- 
lege, to each of which he has been a liberal 
contributor. 

Politically, Mr. Ferry is a Kepublican. In 
1900 he was urged by his friends for the 
nomination for Governor of the state, and at 
the convention at Grand Eapids was the lead- 
ing candidate up to the nineteenth ballot, 
although eventually unsuccessful. He was a 
delegate-at-large to the Minneapolis Conven- 
tion in 1892, and was chairman of the State 
Central Committee, 1896-98. His only offi- 
cial service has been as a member of the 
Board of Estimates, and of the Park and 
Boulevard Commission of Detroit. 

He is a trustee of the Woodward Avenue 
Congregational Church, with which denomi- 
nation he affiliates. 

Miss Addie E. Miller, daughter of John B. 
Miller, of TJnadilla, N. Y., became Mrs. Ferry 
October 1, 1867. Three children. Dexter 
M., Jr., an active assistant to his father, and 
the Misses Blanche and Queene, now survive 
as the fruit of this marriage. 

Mr. Ferry is domestic and social in his 
tastes, and while his home is his sanctuary, yet 
he is also an active member and supporter of 
many of the leading clubs and societies. 

In his business relations he is a man always 
approachable, courteous and affable, and his 
employees, with whom he has never had dis- 
agreement or friction of any kind, are 
devoted to him. 



HISTOEICAL SKETCHES. 



?■««! 



STEVENSON, ELLIOTT G. The senior 
member of the present law firm of Stevenson, 
Merriam, Ekiredge & Butzel, of Detroit, 
ranks with the leading members of the bar of 
Michigan and the northwest. He is of north 
of Ireland stock, his parents having settled in 
Middlesex county, Ont., where the son was 
born May 18, 1856. The father, William 
Stevenson, was a contractor, and came with 
his family to Port Huron in 1869, whore he 
continued to live up to the time of his death 
in May, 1899. Mr. Stevenson's mother still 
makes her home in Port Huron. AVith a 
primary education fitting him for professional 
study, Mr. Stevenson entered the law office of 
O'Brien & Atkinson at Port Huron in 1874, 
and in 1877 was admitted to the bar before 
Judge Harris. He at once associated himself 
in practice Avith his former preceptor, the 
firm of Atkinson & Stevenson continuing for 
several years. In 1882 he became senior 
in the firm of Stevenson & Phillips, which 
firm continued until Mr. Stevenson's removal 
to Detroit in 1887. He here associated him- 
self with Hon. Don M. Dickinson and Henry 
T. Thurber under the firm name of Dickinson, 
Thurber & Stevenson, from which firm he 
withdrew in 1896, practicing his profession 
alone until the formation of the firm first 
named in 1899. 

Mr. Stevenson acquired prominence in 
political and official circles while a resident 
of Port Huron. He was for two terms prose- 
cuting-attorney of St. Clair county, having 
been the first Democratic official elected in 
that county for over twenty years, and was 
the only one elected on his party ticket at the 
time. He was elected mayor of Port Huron 
in 1885, and was twice nominated for Con- 
gress under conditions favoring his election, 
but declined the honor, from business consid- 
eration. Mr. Stevenson managed and led to 
a successful issue thie contest for a delegation 
from Michigan to the Democratic I^ational 
Convention of 1896 that would support Presi- 




ELLIOTT G. STEVENSON. 

dent Cleveland's financial policy, and he was 
made chairman of the delegation. The silver 
sentiment was predominant, however, in the 
convention, and Mr. Bryan was nominated. 
Mr. Stevenson was a supporter of and believer 
in the sound money policy of President ClcA^e- 
land, but felt bound by the action of his party 
convention, and supported its nominees. Mr, 
Stevenson has been prominent in the coun- 
sels of his party in Wayne county, including 
the chairmanship of the county committee. 
As a member of the firm of Dickinson, Thur- 
ber & Stevenson, the entire business of the 
firm devolved upon the latter during the time 
that Mr. Dickinson was postmaster-general, 
Mr. Thurber being in Washington as private 
secretary to the President. 

Mr. Stevenson's societary connections are 
Masonic, Pythian, Foresters and Detroit, Fel- 
lowcraft and North Channel Clubs. Miss 
Emma Mitts, daughter of George Mitts, of 
Port Huron, became Mrs. Stevenson in 1879. 
Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson have three children: 
George Elliott, attending Williams College, 
Williamstown, Massachusetts, and Helen and 
Kennith, at home. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




ALFRED J. MURPHY. 

MURPHY, ALFRED J. Judge Mur- 
phy furnishes an illustration of the possibili- 
ties within the reach of serious effort. Nur- 
tured in the hard .school of adversity, he has 
been obliged to show his passport at every 
turnpike of life. He has resolutely fought 
his way, unaided, from humble beginnings, 
till, at the age of thirty-two, he occupies a 
position in the community of his birth that is 
seldom attained except by men of more ad- 
vanced years. His advancement has neither 
spoiled nor marred him. Simple and unaf- 
fected in manner, it is not unnatural that, al- 
most daily, he should be made the confidant 
and friendly adviser of people in the humble 
walks of life. 

He is a graduate of the Detroit public 
schools. Thence he passed to the Detroit 
College, taking the full classical course there 
and graduating with the Bachelor's Degree in 
1887. He was then employed for two years 
on the staff of the Detroit Free Press, at the 
same time pursuing a post-graduate course at 



his Alma-Mater, and in 1889 received there- 
from the degree of Master of Arts. At the 
same time, he pursued preliminary studies in 
law, and in 1891 entered the Detroit College 
of Law, graduating in June, 1893, with the 
degree of Bachelor of Laws. He thereupon 
at once began the practice of law, continuing 
it without interruption to the time of going 
upon the bench. 

Conservative in the formation and expres- 
sion of opinions, he is a forcible and ready 
speaker, on the stump, on occasions of public 
interest, and at the bar. In August, 1896, 
without solicitation on his part, he was made 
the Democratic and Fusion nominee for the 
office of Attorney-General of Michigan. In 
the city of Detroit he ran many votes ahead 
of his ticket. He had previously had some 
experience in the way of official intercourse 
with the ruling spirits of the party in the 
State, having been assistant secretary of the 
State Central Committee in 1890 and secre- 
tary of the State Senate at the session of 1891. 
In 1898 he was appointed a member of the 
Park and Boulevard Commission of Detroit, 
an unsalaried but responsible position. It 
was while filling that position that he pro- 
cured the adoption of the eight-hour day on 
the park and boulevard system, a reform 
which won for him many expressions of com- 
mendation,. His sympathies have ever been 
alert and active with those to whom life is a 
struggle. 

At the April election in 1899 he was 
elected one of the judges of the Recorder's 
Court of Detroit, taking his place on the 
bench January 9, 1900. In addition to the 
duties of that post. Judge Murphy at present 
occupies the chair of criminal law, and also 
of criminal pleading* and practice, in the De- 
troit College of Law. He is also a member 
of the executive committee of the Detroit 
Bar Association. 



HISTOEIOAL SKETCHES. 



m 



CORNS, HENRY COLDICOTT. The 
parents of Dr. Corns, Joseph and Mary 
(Walker) Corns, came to Detroit from Bir- 
mingham, England, in 1841. "While in Eng- 
land the father was a member of the "Queen's 
Own Guards.'^ In Detroit he was a furniture 
manufacturer on Grand River Avenue, and 
died in 1890, the mother being still living. 
The son, Henry C, was born in Detroit, July 
15, 1860. He attended the Detroit schools 
until fourteen years old, after which he at- 
tended the night schools for three years, being 
assistant to his father during work hours. In 
the fall of 1878 he entered the Dental Depart- 
ment of the University, graduating from there 
after a three years' course. After graduating 
he spent a few months in the office of Dr. 
Watton, a dentist of Detroit, and then trav- 
eled for a year and a half for the H. J. Cal- 
kins' Dental Depot of Detroit, around the 
States of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. In 
1883 he opened an office for the practice of 
dentistry in what was then known as the old 
Fisher Block, on Woodward Avenue, moving 
from thence in 1886 to No. 25 Washington 
Avenue, and in 1893 to his present quarters, 
No. 32 Adams Avenue West. 

Dr. Corns is affiliated with most of the 
Masonic bodies. He first joined the frater- 
nity in 1883 and has passed the chairs of the 
Blue Lodge, being Past Master of Oriental 
Lodge No. 240. He is a member of Penin- 
sular Chapter (Royal Arch) Masons, is a 
member of Detroit Commandery, Knights 
Templar, in which he has held all the Com- 
mandery offices, and is now Past Commander, 




HENRY COLDICOTT CORNS. 

has been a member of the Council (Royal and 
Select Masters) since 1890, is a member of 
the Grand Commandery of the State, and is 
High Priest of the Ancient and Accepted 
Order of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a 
member and one of the board of directors of 
the Detroit Athletic Club. The doctor has 
had some nautical experience, having sailed 
as wheelman and look-out on the tug Kate 
Moffat during the season of 1878. He was 
Assistant Adjutant-General of the State on 
the staff of Governor Rich, 1893-4. In addi* 
tion to his dental practice he is in a business 
way, president of the H. C. Corns Hardwood 
Lumber Company of Detroit. Miss Clara 
Burden, daughter of Wm. Burden, of Cleve- 
land, Ohio, became Mrs. Corns August 29, 
1893. They have no children. 



MEN OF PEOGRESS. 




GEORGE BECK. 

BECK, GEOEGE. Mr. Beck is essen- 
tialy one of the self-made men of Detroit, 
having begun active work for himself as a boy 
of twelve years, with but a limited primary 
education. He was born at Tiverton, Devon- 
shire, England, August 27, 1844, the son of 
William B. and Mary Ann (Lee) Beck. The 
father died at Memphis, Tenn., in 1862 and 
the mother at Detroit in 1890. His father 
was an ornamental plasterer and came to 
America in 1847, locating at Memphis, 
Tenn., where he had large contracts, includ- 
ing contracts on government work. His fam- 
ily joined him in 1851. In 1853 the family 
moved to London, Ont., and from there to 
Cleveland, Ohio, in. 1854, coming to Detroit 
a year later. The son's first work in Detroit 
was with the Eowena Milk Co. at 75 cents 
per week. After a six months' service, he 
hired out to Coles & Smith, of the Marine 
Meat Market, at $4 per month, remaining 
with them a year and a half. He was then 
with Wm. Wreford in the same business and 
tliey have been together ever since. In 1863 



he went to Chicago to buy cattle, buying in 
Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. His 
operations in this line embraced seventeen 
years, up to 1888, a fact of itself quite .con- 
clusive as to his adaptation to a work involv- 
ing large transactions. In 1888 the present 
concern, the Michigan Beef & Provision Co., 
of which Mr. Beck is president and treasurer, 
was formed, they confining their purchases to 
Michigan, doing a business amounting to 
about $600,000 annually. As related to 
Michigan interests in the live stock line, Mr. 
Beck made a record for himself in 1887 in 
fighting through the I^egislature at Lansing 
(at least in the effort to do so) the bill known 
as the "Inspection on Hoof Bill." The power 
of combination, however, was too potent and 
the bill failed by a single vote. This bill, if 
passed, would have been worth an hundred 
million dollars to Michigan, as most of the 
meat used in the state today is raised and 
owned by the ''trust," and is largely raised in 
the states west of us, thus to a great extent 
driving Michigan breeders out of the market. 
Mr. Beck represented the Eighth Ward of 
Detroit, three terms (six years), successively, 
in the Common Council, and during that 
time was two years its president and was one 
of the most useful members of that body. He 
is a Eepublican in politics. Mr. Beck has 
been twice married, March, 1865, to Miss 
Minnie A. Miller, of Detroit, daughter of 
David Miller, of Greenfield. She died at 
Ashville, N. C, December 3, 1893. There 
were two daughters by this marriage, Maude 
E., wife of Charles Wynn, of New York city, 
and Minnie E., wife of H. B. West, of Detroit. 
In 1895 he was married to Miss Jennie M. 
Smith, of Detroit. Mr. Beck is a Thirty- 
Second Degree Mason, is a member of the 
Eoyal Arcanum, the Detroit Wheelman, the 
League of American Wheelmen, the German 
Salesmen's Association, the Douglas League, 
the Detroit Yacht Club, the Detroit Bowling 
Club, Fellowcraft Club, and the Michigan 
and Lincoln Clubs, the two latter Eepublican. 



HISTOBIOAL SKETCHES. 



61^ 



DURANT, WILLIAM CRAPO. Mr. 
Durant is the senior partner in the Durant- 
Dorp Carriage Co., of Flint, which is the 
pioneer of that industry in that city, and the 
common expression in Flint is that he is the 
business man of Michigan, as he has as many 
business institutions to superintend as any 
two men in the state. And his business quali- 
fications are hereditary as well as cultivated, 
his father, William C. Durant, having been 
a banker in Boston, though a native of New 
Hampshire, his mother, Rebecca Crapo, being 
a daughter of the late Governor Henry H. 
Crapo, of Michigan, one of the most saga- 
cious and enterprising business men of Flint, 
forty years ago, who developed the lumber in- 
dustry in that region and built the railroad 
from Flint to Holly, which now forms part of 
the Pere Marquette system. Mr. Durant was 
born in Boston December 8, 1861, the family 
coming to Detroit when he was nine years 
old, and subsequently removing to Flint. The 
son passed the curriculum of the local schools, 
and might have had any position that influen- 
tial relations could secure, but he was ambi- 
tious to do for himself, and at the age of 17 
he became clerk in a drug store at $3 per 
week, then for a time acting as salesman and 
bookkeeper for a cigar manufacturing firm in 
Flint. He received a thorough training and 
discipline in practical business by a three 
years' service as lumber shover and inspector 
in the mills and yards of his uncle, AV. W. 
Crapo, after which he engaged for a time in 
the real estate and insurance business. In 
1886 he began in a very small way the busi- 
ness that has since grown' to gigantic propor- 
tions. When road carts were first introduced 
in the west, he secured an option on the patent 
owned by a party in Coldwater. He formed 
a partnership with J. D. Dort, another young 
man of keen business attributes, and with a 
limited capital, all borrowed, they began the 
manufacture. Their first year's output 
reached some four thousand, proving the 
venture a success. The firm now employs 
1,200 men and does a business amounting to 
three millions annually, their output embrac- 




WILLIAM CRAPO DURANT. 

ing carriages of all descriptions. Their fac- 
tories turn out 400 buggies complete each day. 
They are interested in four carriage factories 
at Flint and own the Imperial Wheel plant at 
Jackson, the largest in the world, together 
with an axel plant and 7,000 acres of southern 
timber, with mills for converting the timber 
into lumber. The Durant-Dort enterprise 
has brought several similar factories to Flint, 
and the city is known as one of the principal 
carriage centers of the world and their pro- 
ducts have a world-wide reputation. 

Mr. Durant is certainly one of the keenest, 
most successful and thorough-going business 
men of the state. He is a director of the 
Citizens' Commercial Savings Bank, of the 
Flint Electric Light Company, Diamond 
Buggy Company, Flint Top & Gear Company 
and Webster Vehicle Company, all of Flint. 
Though a strong Republican in politics, he 
has studiously avoided seeking or accepting 
public office, believing that politics and busi- 
ness cannot be successfully mixed. His reli- 
gious connection is Presbyterian and he is a 
member of the Order of Elks. Miss Clara 
Miller Pitt, daughter of Ralph S. Pitt, of 
Flint, became Mrs. Durant, June 17, 1886. 
Two children, Margery, aged 13, and Russell 
Clifford, aged 9 years, have been bom to Mr. 
and Mrs. Durant. 



MEN OF PROGRESS. 




HAMILTON CARHARTT. 

CARHARTT, HAMILTON. Mr. Car- 
hartt is in direct descent from Thomas and 
Mary (Lord) Carhartt, who came from Eng- 
land in 1600. His parents, George W. and 
Lef a Jane (AVylie) Carhartt, were residents 
of Macedon Locks, Wayne county, N. Y., 
where the son Hamilton was born August 27, 
1855. The parents removed to Detroit, 
where the mother died in the son's early child- 
hood. The father, who was a physician, at 
once removed to Jackson, where he enjoyed 
a wide practice and where the son's early life 
was passed. In 1884 Mr. Carhartt moved to 
Detroit, where he has since resided. In 1889 
the business of which Mr. Carhartt is the 
head (the manufacture of clothing for the 
wholesale trade, comer of Michigan avenue 
and Tenth street, Detroit), was established by 
him under the firm name of Hamilton Car- 
hartt & Co. He had previously represented 
eastern business houses as a commercial agent 



in the middle west. Mr. Carhartt has intro- 
duced into prosaic clothing manufacture the 
spirit of congeniality. His workshop remind 
the visitor at once of a large family gather- 
ing, so absent is the usual awe and formality, 
but nevertheless every one of the 600 and 
more workers performs his or her task with a 
willingness and cheerfulness which is in con- 
trast to what prevails in similar places. Mr. 
Carhartt recognizes in his great business that 
labor has its equities. Like as every man 
should, he has a mission in life, and the man- 
agement of a large industry is considered but 
a means of promoting industrial reform. The 
following from a recent business announce- 
ment is quite a sermon in itself : ^^Our manu- 
facturing business was not started to do the 
gainful thing alone, but the just and honest 
thing first, gainful if possible. There is a 
Moslem maxim that, ^one hour in the execu- 
tion of justice is worth seventy years of 
prayer.' " 

Mr. Carhartt is a member and vice-presi- 
dent of the Detroit Public Lighting Com- 
mission, president of the Ophir Mining Com- 
pany, Stateline, Utah, a director of the Mer- 
chants and Manufacturers' Exchange, and 
president of the Detroit Valve & Washer 
Works. He is a member of Christ Church 
(Episcopal), of the Detroit Club, Detroit 
Athletic Club, Detroit Country Club, De- 
troit Boat Club, Archaeological Society, the 
Comedy Club and Sons of the American 
Revolution. On December 21, 1881, he was 
married to Miss Annette Welling, daughter of 
Stephen A., and Emma (Polar) Welling of 
Jackson. Three children are. the fruit of the 
marriage: Hamilton, Jr., aged 18; Wylie 
Welling, 16, and Margaret Welling, 14. 



HISTOEIOAL SKETCHES. 



m 



BOUTELL, BElSrJAMIlSr. Mr. Boutell 
enjoys the prefix of captain, from his connec- 
tion with iiiarine interests centering at Bay 
City. His father, Daniel Boutell, was of 
Scotch descent. His mother, Betsy Adams, 
was of New England origin and a niece of 
President John Quincy Adams. The par- 
ents came to Michigan from Syracuse, A^. Y., 
in 1827, settling in Deerfield township, Liv- 
ingstone county, where the son was born Au- 
gust 17, 1844. His first essay at productive 
labor was riding a horse to plow corn at a 
staged compensation, when he was six years 
old, so that he early became self-supporting. 
When 12 years old his parents moved to 
Birch Run, leaving him in charge of the 
farm. The parents removed to Bay City in 
1859, and opened a hotel, in which Ben, as he 
is familiarly called, was their assistant. The 
hotel burned down in 1865 and the son se- 
cured a position as ^Vheelman'' on the tug 
^^Wave,'' and the next year was promoted to 
the position of mate. In 1867 he was cap- 
tain of the steamer Ajax, owned by the Eirst 
National Bank of Bay City. The boat had 
been a losing investment and Capt. BoutelPs 
pay was dependent upon what financial results 
he could show from its management. By 
close financing he was enabled to turn over to 
the owners some $6,000 that year and he dates 
his success in life from that time. In 1868 
he sailed the passenger boat Reynolds, and in 
1869 the tug Union. In 1869 he formed a 
co-partnership with one Mitchell, as Mitchell 
& Boutell, doing a general towing and coal 
business. The ibusiness enjoyed a marked 
increase in the number and style of vessels 
until 1886, when the partnership was dis- 
solved, Capt. Mitchell continuing the vessel 
and coal business and Capt. Boutell the raft 
towing. He that year organized the Saginaw 
Bay Towing Co., sixteen tugs now comprising 
the company's fleet. The raft towing has lat- 
terly extended to Georgian Bay and Lake 
Michigan, from having been at first local to 
Saginaw Bay. Many of the log rafts contain 
from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 feet, and Capt. 
Boutell is credited with having handled more 
timber in this way than any man living. He 
has handled every year, for thirty-five years, 
1,000,000 feet and upwards, necessitating a 
heavy labor and expense account. 

Capt. Boutell has been a busy man in out- 
side enterprises. In 1899 he organized the 
Marine Iron Co., of Bay City, and has been 
its president from the first. In 1891 he or- 
ganized the Boutell Transit Co., of Bay City, 




BENJAMIN BOUTELL. 

owning the steamer Hiram W. Sibley and 
schooner Twin Sisters. In 1895 he organized 
the Boutell Towing & Wrecking Co., of 
Sarnia, Ont., of which he is president. In 
1896 he bought the Hampton Transit Co., of 
Bay City, operating the steamer Charles A. 
Eddy, and is president of this company. In 
1899 he, with others, organized the Boutell 
Towing & Transit Co., of Boston, Mass., for 
salt water coastwise towing, being vice-presi- 
dent of this company. He has other vessel 
interests aside from those mentioned. He is 
vice-president of the Michigan Chicory Co. 
and a director and heavy stockholder in the 
Commercial Bank, both of Bay City. Through 
faith in the beet sugar industry, Capt. Boutell 
helped to organize the Michigan Sugar Co. 
and the Bay City Sugar Co., both of Bay 
City, the latter, the largest in the state, and 
of which he is vice-president, he being a heavy 
stockholder in both. He is also a stockholder 
and director in the Marine City Sugar Co., 
and owns large tracts of coal lands and several 
beet raising farms near Bay City. 

Capt. Boutell is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity and a trustee of the Methodist 
Church. 

His wife, to whom he was married Decem- 
ber 21, 1869, was formerly Miss Aurelia 0. . 
Duttinger, of Pine River. Two sons, Fred- 
erick E. and William H., both marriedj and 
in business together at Bay City, are the f rttit 
of the marriage. 



MEH OF PEOGRESS. 




GEORGE WILLIAM MOORE. 

MOORE, GEORGE WILLIAM. There 
is no more striking figure seen in Detroit than 
George William Moore. Six feet two in 
height, well proportioned, cheek bones some- 
what prominent, giving a slight look of angu- 
larity to the countenance, hair and whiskers 
divided between brown and sandy — ^while it 
cannot perhaps be said that he resembles Lin- 
coln in his make-up, there is about him that 
element which may be termed homely hon- 
esty, and a tendency in his relations with men 
to go straight to the matter in hand, that leads 
one involuntarily to associate him in thought 
with the Great Emancipator. While from 
his personal appearance, an observer would 
assign to Mr. Moore a high rank among his 
fellows, he is by air and manner simply plain 
Mr. Moore, and though a head taller than 
some other, corporeally, if his moral and in- 
tellectual stature exceeds the averagOj it must 
appear from his acts, and not from any as- 
sumption of superiority on his part. 



Mr. Moore's ancestors came from the Brit- 
ish Isles, his paternal grandfather, William 
Moore, from London, his paternal grand- 
mother, Elizabeth Barnes, from Tyronne 
county, Ireland, and his mother from Leices- 
tershire, England. 

Mr. Moore is a native of Wayne county, 
Michigan, having been born in the township 
of Romulus, September 9, 1847, son of 
George Washington Moore (retired), a New 
Yorker by birth, and a resident of the village 
of Romulus. He was educated in the schools 
at Ypsilanti and later in the Law Department 
of the State University, from which he gradu- 
ated in 1872, and was admitted to the bar. the 
same year. He having become a resident of 
Detroit, at once formed a business connection 
with his present partner, George Whitney 
Moore, under the firm name of Moore & 
Moore. The similarity of their names, both 
having the same initials, leads them in their 
personal relations to give the middle name in 
full as a means of identity. The firm of 
Moore & Moore is familiar in legal circles in 
Michigan and adjacent states. Their prac- 
tice is confined to the civil courts and is varied 
and general, and includes constitutional, cor- 
porate and commercial law. 

Mr. Moore has never stood for public office 
of any kind. He is, however, a Democrat 
from the ground up. He is potential in the 
counsels of the party and is at present a mem- 
ber of the State Central Committee, from the 
First Congressional District. He is an elo- 
quent, logical and forceful speaker before the 
court and jury and at the hustings in political 
campaigns. He is also an occasional contrib- 
utor of political articles to the daily press. In 
1885 Mr. Moore was married to Miss Kath- 
erine M. DeMill, daughter of the late Peter 
E. DeMill, of Detroit. They have one 
daughter, who bears her mother's name. 



a6»^ 



DO NOT REMOVE 

OR 
MUTIUTE CARDS 



■'^f%\